April 15, 2022 // The Biblical Languages Podcast

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In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso shares core concepts that are essential for understanding morphology.
Introduction
Outline
- Derivational vs. Inflectional morphology (Lexical vs. functional morphemes)
- Derivational morphology
- Roots, phonological and lexical features (define lexeme)
- Categorizers (discuss categories)
- Derivational affixation (one category to the next)
- Compounding
- Inflectional morphology
- Nouns
- Adjectives
- Verbs
Derivational vs. Inflectional Morphology
Derivational Morphology: Roots
Similarity in root does not predict similarity in meaning, e.g. journal vs. journey. But sometimes it does, e.g. journalism vs. journalist.
Open question: How can we tell the difference?
Derivational Morphology: Categorizers
- In English, categorizers may not be audible, e.g. a kick vs. kicked
- In Hebrew, categorizers are realized as the vowel patterns, or templates, e.g. מֶלֶךְ vs. מָלַךְ
- In Greek, categories are revealed by inflectional morphology, e.g. ἀκοή vs. ἀκούω
- A word consists of the semantics of the root plus the semantics of the categorizer it combines with
- Words with the same root but with different categories differ according to the semantics of the categorizer, e.g. צַדִּיק, צָדֵק, צֶדֶק
Derivational Morphology: Derivational Affixes

Derivational Morphology: Compounding
Inflectional Morphology: Nouns
- The semantics of determiners, quantifiers, and numerals help to determine the interpretation of the noun
- A phrase like ὁ Ἰησοῦς is not possible in English (*the Jesus). Either the article must be different in Greek or proper names must be different.
See: Baker 2003, Borer 2005a, Alexiadou, Haegeman and Stavrou 2008
Inflectional Morphology: Verbs
- Verbs will always be predicated of something
- The interpretation of a verb interacts with TAM morphology
Inflectional Morphology: Adjectives
- Adjectives can modify nouns in different ways
- Degree morphology (and scale structure) affects the interpretation of adjectives
Conclusion
- Derivational vs. Inflectional morphology (Lexical vs. functional morphemes)
- Derivational morphology
- Roots, phonological and lexical features (define lexeme)
- Categorizers (discuss categories)
- Derivational affixation (one category to the next)
- Compounding
- Inflectional categories
- Nouns
- Adjectives
- Verbs
Series
Part 1: Basic Semantic Concepts
Part 3: Basic Syntax Concepts
Part 4: Basic Pragmatics Concepts
Where to listen
Listen to the full episode, share your feedback, and let us know topics you'd like to hear on future episodes!

The Biblical Languages Podcast hosts discussions and interviews related to learning the biblical languages and issues relevant to biblical exegesis. Episodes cover topics in 4 major categories: language acquisition, linguistics, cultural backgrounds, and exegesis.
Listen & subscribe here: https://biblingo.org/podcast/
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