LING 301
HOMEWORK: MORPHOLOGY ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS
OVERVIEW
This assignment affords you the opportunity to practice basic morphological analysis using data
sets from a variety of languages. You will be asked specific questions to guide you through a
standard review of the data, which will enable you to reach conclusions about how specific
morphemes are functioning in the language. You will also be asked to identify English
morphemes by representing the word structure of English words through tree notations.
INSTRUCTIONS
Each exercise below provides specific instructions. Please read the instructions carefully and
answer each question completely. Type your answers to each question below the question itself.
When you have been given a text box, you will have two options for answering. Either type your
response directly into the text box or follow this format to insert an image: hand write or draw
your answer, snap a picture, insert the picture as an image into the text box in your document.
Note: When you see the number of an exercise inside parentheses, you know that exercise has
been taken from your textbook. Exercises are located at the end of each chapter in the textbook.
The total point value for this assignment is 60 points.
1. Turkish (Textbook, Exercise 17).
Following is a list of words from Turkish. In Turkish, articles and morphemes indicating
location are affixed to the noun.
a. What is the Turkish morpheme meaning “to”?
- “e”
b. What kind of affixes in Turkish correspond to English prepositions (e.g., prefixes,
suffixes, infixes, free morphemes)?
- e, en, and imde
c. What would the Turkish word for “from an ocean” be?
- “denizen”
d. How many morphemes are there in the Turkish word denizimde?
- 2
2. Swedish. (Textbook, Exercise 6)
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deniz “an ocean evden “from a house”
denize “to an ocean” evimden “from my house”
denizen “of an ocean denizimde “in my ocean”
eve “to a house” elde “in a hand”
LING 301
Sweden has given the world the rock group ABBA, the automobile Volvo, and the great
film director Ingmar Bergman. The Swedish language offers us a noun morphology that
you can analyze with the knowledge gained reading this chapter. Consider these Swedish
noun forms:
a. What is the Swedish word for the indefinite article a (or an)?
- en
b. What are the two forms of the plural morpheme in these data? How can you tell
which plural form applies?
- R or na. It seems that “r” is used as a general morpheme and “na” is used to
address specific plural nouns directly.
c. What are the two forms of the morpheme that make a singular word definite, that is,
correspond to the English article the? How can you tell which form applies?
- “n” and “a”, it seems that it depends on rather there is an “s” at the end of the
word in it’s plural form, if yes than use “a” and if not, use “n”.
d. What is the morpheme that makes a plural word definite?
- “na”
e. In what order do the various suffixes occur when there is more than one?
- Noun+ “ar” +”na”
f. If en flicka is “a girl,” what are the forms for “girls,” “the girl,” and “the girls”?
- Flickor, Flickan, Flickorna
g. If bussarna is “the buses,” what are the forms for “buses” and “the bus”?
- Bussar, Bussen
3. Samoan. (Textbook, Exercise 10 pt.1)
The authors of your textbook mentioned the morphological process of reduplication—the
formation of new words through the repetition of part or all of a word—which occurs in
many languages. The following examples from Samoan illustrate this kind of
morphological rule.
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en lampa “a lamp” en bil “a car”
en stol “a chair” en sofa “a sofa”
en matta “a carpet” en tratt “a funnel”
lampor “lamps” bilar “cars”
stolar “chairs” soffor “sofas”
mattor “carpets” trattar “funnels”
lampan “the lamp” bilen “the car”
stolen “the chair” soffan “the sofa”
mattan “the carpet” tratten “the funnel”
lamporna “the lamps” bilarna “the cars”
stolarna “the chairs” sofforna “the sofas”
mattorna “the carpets” trattarna “the funnels”
LING 301
Using the data for Samoan, answer the following questions.
a. What is the Samoan for:
“they weave” lagaga
“they travel” savavali
“he sings” pese
b. Formulate a general statement (a morphological rule) that states how to form the
plural verb form from the singular verb form.
- You keep the same beginning prefix and suffix but change the tense by changing
the amount of times the core phrase is used.
4. Draw tree diagrams for each word below. (Textbook, Exercise 12)
Click inside the textbox, then use the Shapes tool (under Insert in Word) to draw
lines. Label each word part with the part of speech.
Alternately, you may draw the trees by hand, take a picture of each and insert it
into the box below next to the appropriate word. Inserted images must be
readable, meaning they must be properly oriented in an upright position, the print
must be clear, and the image must be sized so that it can be read.
The first one has been done for you as an example.
Repayment
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manao “he wishes” mananao “they wish”
matua “he is old” matutua “they are old”
malosi “he is strong” malolosi “they are strong”
punou “he bends” punonou “they bend”
atamaki “he is wise” atamamaki “they are wise”
savali “he travels” pepese “they sing”
laga “he weaves”
LING 301
Redarken Verb
Noun Verb
Re dark en
5. Draw two tree diagrams for undarkenable to reveal its two meanings:
Undarkenable
“able to be less dark” noun
noun verb
Un noun able
darken
Undarkenable
“unable to be made dark” verb
noun verb
un verb able
darken
6. Visit the website “Random Word Generator” online at
https://randomwordgenerator.com/. Ask the site to generate 5 words, each greater
than 3 syllables. Write the 5 words here and place a “+” between each morpheme.
(If you are in doubt about a morpheme, you might find it helpful to check an
etymylogical dictionary like https://www.etymonline.com/. The history of a word
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LING 301
often shows you how the root and its affixes have changed through the word’s
history.)
For example, if the program generated the word “homeostasis,” then I would write
homeo + stasis.
Word Morphemes
Incapable In + Capable
celebration Celebrate+ Ion
Constellation Con+ Ster+ lation
Laboratory Labor+ Atory
restoration Restore + ation
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