Linguistics 105 * Words and Sounds
Second Chance Morphology


For homework or ARO make-up work, complete any four of the following five problems. The grade you receive on this work will be averaged with your original score and the result will be the final grade for that particular assignment or ARO.

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1. Turkish Noun Morphology

Turkish is an agglutinative Altaic language with "vowel harmony", i.e. the vowels of the stem influence those of any suffixes. The follow data sampling provides a part of the nominal inflection paradigm. Analyze the words for the forms and meanings of two inflectional morphemes then answer the questions below. The undotted "i" /¸/ = unrounded /u/ {+High, +Back -Rounded]

Turkish Gloss   Turkish Gloss
ev house   odaroom
evlerhouses   odalarrooms
evinhouse's   odanroom's
evlerinhouses'   odalarønrooms'
athorse   gecenight
atlarhorses   gecelernights
at¸nhorse's   gecennight's
atlar¸nhorses'   gecelerinnights'

  1. What are the two affixes and what are their meanings?

    The shorter affix has two allomorphic rules. What are they?

  4. What is the one allomorphic rule governing the longer affix?

  5. If tren means 'train' in Turkish, how would you say 'the train's (sg.)'?

  6. How would you say 'the trains' (pl.)' in Turkish?

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2. Allomorphic Variation in Luganda Indefinite Nouns

The following data comes from a Bantu language, Luganda. Study it carefully, taking notes, then anwer the questions that follow.

[akaato] 'little canoe'

[ðnato] 'a canoe'

[akaapo] 'little house'

[ðnapo] 'a house'

[akaobi] 'little animal'

[ðnobi] 'an animal'

[akapipi] 'little kidney'

[ðmpipi] 'a kidney'

[akakoosa] 'little feather'

[ðükoosa] 'a feather'

[akabððmmo] 'little peg'

[ðmmððmmo] 'a peg'

[akag³³mme] 'little horn'

[ðüü³³mme] 'a horn'

[akadmiro] 'little garden'

[ðnnmiro] 'a garden'

  1. Isolate the indefinite morpheme, meaning 'a', and the diminutive morpheme, meaning 'little'.
    [-Definite]
    [+Diminutive]

  2. Describe the allomorphic alternation of the indefinite prefix.

  3. Describe the allomorphic alternation of the stem, caused by the prefix meaning 'a' ([+Indefinite]).

  4. If tabi means 'branch' in Luganda, how would you say 'little branch'?

  5. If ugðni means 'stranger' in Luganda, how would you say 'a stranger'?

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3. Xhosa Partitive

Xhosa is a Bantu language spoken in the Cape province of South Africa. What is the Partitive case affix in that language and what determines the distribution of its variants?

Nominative Gloss Partitive Gloss
udaka 'mud' kudaka 'some (of the) mud'
ubuso 'face' kubuso 'some of the face'
ukutja 'food' kukutja 'some (of the) food'
ihashe 'horse' kwihashe 'some of the horse'
iükosi 'chief' kwiükosi 'some of the chief'
izitja 'basket' kwizitja 'some of the basket'
abantu 'people' kubantu 'some (of the) people'
amadoda 'men' kumadoda 'some (of the) men'

  1. The phonemic form of the partitive suffix is:

  2. The allophonic variations (and their conditions) are the following
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4. Papago Plural Allomorphy

The Papago Indians, or 'Bean People', of Arizona speak a Uto-Aztecan language with a common morphological method for forming the plural of nouns. Assume Papago to be an open syllable language (no consonants ever 'close' syllables) and that double vowels are equivalent to long vowels. ([¸] is a high back unrounded vowel.)

 
Singular Plural Gloss
bana baabana 'coyote'
kuna kuukuna 'husband'
t¸ho t¸¸t¸ho 'cave'
sona soosona 'base'
naaka naanaka 'ear'
toona tootona 'knee'
tini tiitini 'mouth'
t¸¸ma t¸¸t¸ma 'heel'
paga paapaga 'hole'

  1. Describe the morphological process for forming the plural.

  2. Describe the allomorphic adjustments accompanying pluralization.


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English Word Formation Allomorphy

(1) Isolate and define (basic sound + meaning) the derivational prefix(es) in the English data listed in the table below. Is there one or two prefixes?

Prefix No. 1:
Prefix No. 2?:

legal

illegal

competent

incompetent

convenient

inconvenient

relevant

irrelevant

accurate

innaccurate

grateful

ungrateful

pure

impure

insightful

uninsightful

duly

unduly

natural

unnatural

moveable

immoveable

legitimate

illegitimate

legible

illegible

repressible

irrepressible

perfect

imperfect

mature

immature

breakable

unbreakable

protected

unprotected

probable

improbable

manageable

unmanageable

manly

unmanly

usual

unusual

eligible

ineligible

level

unlevel

(2) Describe their allomorphs of either prefix.
Allomorphs of prefix No. 1:


Allomorphs of prefix No. 2:


(3) Are the conditions purely phonological or morphological?
Prefix No. 1

  • Phonological
  • Morphological
  • Neither
Prefix No. 2
  • Phonological
  • Morphological
  • Neither
Finally, if you claim that either set of allomorphic rules are morphologically determined, explain why you think so here: