LIN 3460 Spring 2009

Study Guide to Exam 1

Topics and skills we’ve covered: • Characteristics of the natural human language system (generality, creativity, inaccessibility, universality) • Language universals and their types (absolute universals vs. tendencies) • The as thing/process • Morphological concepts • Types of : bound vs. free • Kinds of (, , , simulfix) • Portmanteau morpheme • Zero morpheme • Blends • Morphological processes (affixation, , replacive, subtractive) • Morphological terminology (, stem, , etc.) • Grammatical vs. lexical morphemes • Derivation vs. inflection • Identifying morphemes • Word formation rules (morphotactics) • Translating glossed examples

The relevant readings in DOL are Ch. 1 (esp. 1-10) Ch. 5 (230-232, 252-271) (identifying morphemes, morphotactics, inflection and derivation)

The exam consists of two parts. Here are the instructions from the two parts:

I. Morphological Analysis Give a lexicon and grammar that completely describes each of the two sets of data that follow. Your answer should contain a lexicon of lexical entries. Model them on the ones given below and ones from class problems. Your answer should also contain word formation rules. Again model them on the ones given below and ones from class problems. Include any commentary that you feel would be helpful in making your answer understandable.

II. Short Answer Answer the following questions (you will have to choose 5 out of 7).

Samples of exam questions follow. Note that the exam is not short. You will need to know the material well to finish in good time. LIN 3460 Spring 2009

Sample exam problems

I. Morphological Analysis Give a lexicon and grammar that completely describes each of the three sets of data that follow. Model your answer on the problems we have done in class. Include any commentary that you feel would be helpful in making your answer understandable.

1. English Remember that you care about the phonological shape of the morphemes not the written shape.

(1) daddy (2) dadless (3) doggy (4) penniless (5) piggy (6) silliness

2. Tetelcingo Nahuatl Note that [ Ι ] and [ i ] are different sounds. Please keep them distinct.

(1) tɪkwikas ‘You will sing’ (5) tɪtʃuka ‘You cry’ (2) nɪtʃukak ‘I cried’ (6) nɪkonis ‘I will drink’ (3) tɪkonik ‘You drank’ (7) nɪkwika ‘I sing’ (4) tɪkwika ‘You sing’

3. Fore (Papua New Guinea) Be sure to include a word formation rule in your solution. Use precise terminology in glossing the inflectional morphemes and in naming the morphological categories that they belong to.

(1) natui ‘I ate’ (2) nagasui ‘I eat’ (3) nakui ‘I will eat’ (4) nagasusi ‘We two eat’ (5) nakusi ‘We two will eat’ (6) nataasi ‘They two ate’ (7) nataasaw ‘Did they two eat?’ (8) nakusaw ‘Will we two eat?’ (9) nagasuaw ‘Do I eat?’ LIN 3460 Spring 2009

II. Short Answer Answer 5 of the following questions.

1. What kind of language universal is (a)? Explain your answer. (a) If a language has inflectional affixes then it will also have derivational affixes

2. What is a bound root? Be sure to define bound and root. Give at least two examples from English or another language.

3. Is the English morpheme -ive as in assert-ive, impress-ive, or restrict-ive a derivational morpheme or an inflectional morpheme? Give at least two reasons to support your answer.

4. What is a portmanteau morpheme? Give an example. Give an example of a morpheme that is not a portmanteau.

5. What is the difference between affixation and subtractive ?

6. Identify and describe the function of the morphemes in the following set of English words. Also give word formation rules: Useless, less, lesser, flawless.

7. Give a gloss or glosses for the Japanese sentences in (1) below. Explain your answer if necessary. Give at least two ways in which English and Japanese differ morphologically.

(1) Musa ye kitaaboo lu soto baΝ Musa PERFECTIVE book PLURAL have INTERROGATIVE