Asl Morphology

I. Review Phonology and Phonemes
II. Morphology
a. The study of the smallest meaningful units in language
III. Morpheme
b. Smallest meaningful unit in a language
c. Canbe a Process (such as reduplication), as opposed to an identifiable unit
d. Free morphemes
i. Can stand alone
e. Bound morphemes
ii. Must occur with another morphemeIV. Morphological process – Deriving nouns from verbs
f. English does this too: see page 51
iii. Stress on certain syllables
iv. Adding –er (writer) p. 52
V.Reduplication
g. The process of movement epenthesis to create nouns from verbs in ASL.
VI. Affixation
h. The process of adding bound morphemes to other forms to create new units.v. PERSON suffix (TEACHER, LAWYER, ACTOR)
vi. ** DO NOT ** automatically add the person suffix when you hear –ER in English: i.e. Provider, Supplier. The #CO suffix may be needed instead.VII. Compounding
i. The combination of two or more free morphemes to create new words.
j. The new word created through compounding has a new meaning.
k. Morphological rulesused to create compounds in ASL
vii. First-contact rule
1. The first or only contact hold is kept. If two signs come together to form a compound and the first sign has a contacthold in it, that hold will stay. If the first sign does not have a contact hold but the second sign does, that contact hold will stay.
2. GOOD~NIGHT, THINK~SAME
viii.Single-sequence rule
3. When signs with internal movement or repetition come together with other signs to form compounds, the repetition or internal movement is eliminated.
ix. Weak handanticipation rule
4. The signer’s weak hand anticipates the second sign in the compound, and will appear at the same time that the active hand is activated.
a. SISTER...