Part 1: Morphology
Problem 1: Identifying Morphemes (Language Files)
A list of English words is given below. For each of the words do the following:
(1) Divide the word into morphemes (a-h will contain at most 2 morphemes, i-k will
contain more),
(2) Decide, for each morpheme, whether it is free of bound
(3) If any affixes are involved, label them as prefixes or suffixes, and
(4) If there are any affixes involved, label them as inflectional or derivational.
a) cats
b) unhappy
c) catsup
d) milder
e) greedy
f) bicycle
g) signpost
h) entrust
i) unidirectional
j) unspeakably
k) thickeners
l) reconditioned
Problem 2: Bontoc (Language Files)
Consider the following data from Bontoc, a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken in the Philippines.
These data show an example of derivational morphology in which an adjectival root is turned into a
verb. What type of affix is used to form the verb? Describe its placement in the word.
[fikas] ‘strong’ [fumikas] ‘he is becoming strong’
[kilad] ‘red’ [kumilad] ‘he is becoming red’
[bato] ‘stone’ [bumiato] ‘he is becoming stone’
[fusul] ‘enemy’ [fumiusul] ‘he is becoming an enemy’
Problem 3: Cran-Morphs
A “cran-morph” (named after the word “cranberry”) is a morpheme that has no meaning without
the addition of derivational affixes. Some English examples are given below:
a) cranberry
b) receive
c) submit
d) inept
e) cobweb
For each of the words above, give some reasons why we might want to consider the bolded portion
to be an independent morpheme even though it has no meaning of its own. The best way to do this
is by providing either (a) an example of another word that uses the bolded morpheme or (b)
another word that uses the other morphemes in the word as a derivational affix or independent
word.
For each word also try to answer what part of speech the meaningless portion would have if it
could be used as a free morpheme.
An example is given below:
Unkempt – The morpheme “un” is used in other words to create words like “un-lock” or
“un-rest” or “un-believable” thus we know that “un-” can attach to other morphemes to
form new words. Since we can separate out “un-” from this word, we can conclude that
kempt must be another morpheme. Since “un” typically does not alter the part of speech of
the word it attaches to, and since “unkempt” is an adjective we can guess that if “kempt”
could be used on its own it would probably also be an adjective.
Problem 4: Zulu Roots (Fromkin, Rodman, Hyams 2003)
Part 1: Plurals
Consider the following nouns in Zulu and proceed to look for the recurring forms. Note that the
ordering of morphemes is not identical across languages. Thus, what is a prefix in one language
may be a suffix or an infix in another:
Singular Plural Translation
umfazi abafazi married woman/women
umfani abafani boy(s)
umzali abazali parent(s)
umfundisi abafundisi teacher(s)
umbazi ababazi carver(s)
umlimi abalimi farmer(s)
umdlali abadlali player(s)
umfundi abafundi reader(s)
a) What is the morpheme meaning “singular” in Zulu?
b) What is the morpheme meaning “plural” in Zulu?
c) List the Zulu stems to which the singular and plural morphemes are attached and give
their meanings.
Part 2: Denominal Verbs
The following Zulu verbs are derived from noun stems by adding a verbal suffix:
fundisa = “to teach” funda = “to read”
lima = “to cultivate” baza = “to carve
d) Compare these words to the words in Part 1 that are related in meaning. What is the
derivational suffix that specifies the category verb?
e) What is the nominal suffix (ie. the suffix that forms nouns)
f) What is the root morpheme meaning “read”?
g) What is the root morpheme meaning “carve”?
Part 2: Syntax
Problem 5: Argument vs. Adjunct (Language Files)
In each of the following pairs of sentences, the underlined expression is an argument in one
sentence but an adjunct in the other. Figure out in which sentence it is an argument and in which
sentence it is an adjunct. Provide evidence for each answer.
a) Yesterday was a great day
Sally had a great day yesterday
b) Polly seemed excited about her new job
Bob’s roommate, excited about her new job, got up at 6am on Monday
c) The book on the shelf is very dusty
Sally put the book on the shelf
d) To study French is something Sally always wanted to do.
Sally went to Paris to study French
Problem 6: Syntactic Constituency (Language Files)
Consider the sentence “A highly motivated student of mine planned to go to Rome to study Italian.”
a) Use the cleft test to show that a highly motivated student is not a constituent in this sentence
b) Use the question-answer test to show that to Rome to study Italian is not a constituent
c) Is to go to Rome to study Italian a constituent or not? Give evidence from the clefting,
question-answer, and substitution tests (aka. 3 sentences)
d) Is highly motivated student a constituent or not? Give evidence from all three tests.
e) Use the substitution test to show that to Rome is a constituent
f) Is planned to go to Rome a constituent or not? Give evidence from all three tests.
Problem 7: Drawing Trees
Construct a phrase structure tree for each of the following expressions
a) Olivia likes cats
b) Sandy kicked the ball
c) Olivia saw Nate with binoculars
d) The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog