Morphological Analysis Answers

morphological analysis answers about data from Zulu, Swedish, Cebuano, Dutch, Swahili, Samoan, Italian, Turkish, Chickasaw and Little-End Egglish languages.

Answers 1                     Exercise

A. Consider the following nouns in Zulu and proceed to look for the recurring forms:

a. What is the morpheme meaning “singular” in Zulu?

um-

b. What is the morpheme meaning “plural” in Zulu?

aba-

c. List the Zulu stems to which the singular and plural morphemes are attached, and give their meanings.

fazi          “married woman
fani          “boy”
zali          “parent”
fundisi     “teacher”
bazi         “carver”
limi         “farmer”
dlali        “player”
fundi       “reader”

B. The following Zulu verbs are derived from noun stems by adding a verbal suffix:

d. Compare these words to the words in section A that are related in meaning, for example, umfundisi “teacher,” abafundisi “teachers,” fundisa “to teach.” What is the derivational suffix that specifies the category verb?

-a

e. What is the nominal suffix (i.e., the suffix that forms nouns)?

-i

f. State the morphological noun formation rule in Zulu.

stem word + “-i” = noun

g. What is the stem morpheme meaning “read”?

“fund”

h. What is the stem morpheme meaning “carve”?

“baz”

Answers 2                     Exercise

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?

en lampa “a lamp” en soffa “a sofa” en tidning “a newspaper” en bil “a car” en stol “a chair” en katt “a cat”

lampor “lamps” soffor “sofas” tidningar “newspapers” bilar “cars” stolar “chairs” kattar “cats”

when the stem word ends with the letter “a”, we drop the letter and add -or as in:
lampa => lampor

when the word and with another letter, we just add the suffix -ar as in:
bil + ar = bilar
stol + ar = stolar

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?

en lampa “a lamp” en soffa “a sofa” en bil “a car” en stol “a chair” en katt “a cat”

lampan “the lamp” soffan “the sofa” bilen “the car” stolen “the chair” katten “the cat”

So, the morphemes that make a singular word definite are: "-n" and "-en". When the word ends with a vowel, the suffix -n is added. Therefore, when it end with a consonant the suffix -en is added.

d. What is the morpheme that makes a plural word definite?

lampor “lamps” soffor “sofas” tidningar “newspapers” bilar “cars” stolar “chairs” kattar “cats”

lamporna “the lamps” sofforna “the sofa” tidningarna “the newspapers” bilarna “the cars” stolarna “the chairs” kattarna “the cats”

So, the morpheme that makes a plural word definite is: "-na"

e. In what order do the various suffixes occur when there is more than one?

stem + plural suffix + definite suffix

f. If en flicka is “a girl,” what are the forms for “girls,” “the girl,” and “the girls”?

en flicka  “a girl”
flickor  “girls”
flickan  “the girl”
flickorna  “the girls”

g. If bussarna is “the buses,” what are the forms for “buses” and “the bus”?

bussarna    “the buses”
bussar    “buses”
bussna    “the bus”

Answers 3                     Exercise

a. What is the exact rule for deriving language names from ethnic group names?

sibwano “a Cebuano” bisaja “a Visayan” tagalog “a Tagalog person”

sinibwano “the Cebuano language” binisaja “the Visayan language” tinagalog “the Tagalog language”

If we compare these three lines, we see that the infix “-in-” is inserted within the first syllable, exactly, after the onset:

/s/ + /-in-/ + /ibwano/
/b/ + /-in-/ + /isaja/
/t/ + /-in-/ + /agalog/

Note that these three words start with a consonant.

ilokano “an Ilocano” inglis “an Englishman”

inilokano “the Ilocano language” ininglis “the English language”

Looking at this two examples, we see that the morpheme “-in-“ is added at the beginning of the word. So, it is not simple to account for it as an infix. It looks like a prefix. Therefore, these two words start with a vowel, so the first syllable of has (0) onset. We can write:
/0/ + /-in-/ + /ilokano/
/0/ + /-in-/ + /inglis/

As as result, the exact rule is:
onset + “-in-“ + the rest of the root

b. What type of affixation is represented here?

Infixation

c. If suwid meant “a Swede” and italo meant “an Italian,” what would be the words for the Swedish language and the Italian language?

suwid “a Swede”  sinuwid “the Swedish language”
italo “an Italian” initalo “the Italian language”

d. If finuranso meant “the French language” and inunagari meant “the Hungarian language,” what would be the words for a Frenchman and a Hungarian?

finuranso “the French language” furanso “a Frenchman”
inunagari “the Hungarian language” unagari “a Hungarian”

Answers 4                     Exercise

a. State the morphological rule for forming an infinitive in Dutch.

Root wandel duw stofzuig

Infinitive wandelen duwen stofzuigen

By reviewing these examples, we see that the infinitive is formed by the process of suffixation following this rule:

root + suffix “-en”

b. State the morphological rule for forming the Dutch past participle form.

Root wandel duw stofzuig

Past Participle gewandeld  “walk” geduwd  “push” gestofzuigd  “vacuum-clean”

Concerning these examples, the past participle is formed by circumfixing the prefix “ge-“ at the beginning of the root and the suffix “-d” at the end:

prefix “ge-“ + root + suffix “-d”

Answers 5                     Exercise

a. Identify all the morphemes you can detect, and give their meanings.

m- noun prefix attached to singular nouns of Class I
a- prefix attached to verbs when the subject is a singular noun of Class I
wa- noun prefix attached to plural nouns of Class I
ki- noun prefix attached to singular nouns of Class II
vi- noun prefix attached to plural nouns of Class II
wa- prefix attached to verbs when the subject is a plural noun of Class I
ki- prefix attached to verbs when the subject is a singular noun of Class II
vi- prefix attached to verbs when the subject is a plural noun of Class II
na- present continuous tense prefix
me- present perfect tense prefix
ta- future tense prefix
-tu “person”
-su “knife”
-kapu “basket”
-fika “arrive”
-lala “sleep”
-anguka “fall”

b. How is the verb constructed? That is, what kinds of morphemes are strung together and in what order?

agreement prefix + tense/aspect prefix + Verb

c. How would you say in Swahili:

(1) mtoto anaanguka “The child is falling.”
(2) vikapu vimefika “The baskets have arrived.”
(3) mtu ataanguka “The person will fall.”

Answers 6                     Exercise

a. What is the Samoan for:

(1) lalaga “they weave”
(2) savavali “they travel”
(3) pese “he sings”

b. Formulate a general statement (a morphological rule) that states how to form the plural verb form from the singular verb form.

manao “he wishes”  matua “he is old”  malosi “he is strong”  punou “he bends”  atamaki “he is wise”  savali “he travels”  laga “he weaves” pese “he sings”

mananao “they wish” matutua “they are old” malolosi “they are strong” punonou “they bend” atamamaki “they are wise” savavali “they travel” lalaga “they weave” pepese “they sing”

As you see above, to form the plural verb form from the singular verb form, the next-to-last syllable is reduplicated and placed before the last syllable.

Answers 7                     Exercise

a. What is the root morpheme meaning “robust”?

robust

b. What is the morpheme meaning “very”?

-issim

c. What is the Italian for:

(1) un vino robusto “a robust wine”
(2) una faccia rossissima “a very red face”
(3) un vino seccissimo “a very dry wine”

Answers 8                     Exercise

a. What is the Turkish morpheme meaning “to”?

e

b. What kind of affixes in Turkish corresponds to English Prepositions (e.g., prefixes, suffixes, infixes, free morphemes)?

suffixes

c. What would the Turkish word for “from an ocean” be?

denizden

d. How many morphemes are there in the Turkish word denizimde?

deniz + im + de

Answers 9                     Exercise

a. What is the root morpheme for the following verbs?

(1) chaaha “to be tall”
(2) hopoba “to be hungry”

b. What is the morpheme meaning:

(1) -tok past tense
(2) sa“I”
(3) chi “you”
(4) Ø “he/she”

c. If the Chickasaw root for “to be old” is sipokni, how would you say:

(1) chisipokni “You are old”
(2) sipoknitok “He was old”
(3) hoosipokni “They are old”

Answers 10                     Exercise

i. Isolate the morphemes that indicate possession, first person singular, and second person (we don’t know whether singular, plural, or both). Indicate whether the affixes are prefixes or suffixes.

possession: z-
first person singular: -ego
second person: -ivo

ii. Given that vel means “egg white”, how would a Little-End Egglisher say “my egg white”?

zvelego

iii. Given that zpeivo means “your hard-boiled egg,” what is the word meaning “hard-boiled egg”?

pe

iv. If you knew that zvetgogo meant “our egg yolk,” what would be likely to be the morpheme meaning “our”?

-gogo

v. If you knew that borokego meant “for my egg,” what would be likely to be the morpheme bearing the benefactive meaning “for”?

bo-