ENGL 4/540

Fall 2011 Morphological analysis - How to do morphology problems

The goal of morphological analysis is to isolate and identify all the morphemes in the words in a data set. To do this, you must identify recurring forms (combinations of sounds) and match them with recurring meanings (given in the glosses, or translations). When working with an unfamiliar language, however, it is not possible to identify morphemes in words without having several forms to compare. For example, the word m!mi in Mende (a Niger-Congo language spoken in Sierra Leone) means the glass. However, without looking at other related forms in Mende, you wouldnt be able to determine which part of the word m!mi means glass and which part means the. When you look at the data set of Mende nouns below, however, it becomes quite easy to identify the definite marker as the suffix -i. kali navo m!m hoe boy glass kalii navoi m!mi the hoe the boy the glass

Most of the problems we will do are more complex than the Mende data set, but the basic process is the same: Compare and contrast similar forms. Identify recurring strings of sounds and match them with recurring meanings. List all morphemes found in the data and give their meanings.

Some things to keep in mind when doing morphology problems: Do not assume morpheme or word order is the same as English. Do not assume that every semantic and grammatical contrast expressed in English will also be expressed in the language you are analyzing (e.g. there are no articles in Turkish; ChiBemba (Niger-Congo) has three-way number contrast: singular, dual, plural, instead of a two-way contrast, as in English (singular, plural). Do not assume that a particular grammatical concept in a given language is expressed the same way as it is in English. For example, PAST TENSE is expressed with an inflectional suffix in English (-ed) but may be expressed with a separate word in another language, or even with a lexical item such as yesterday. A morpheme can have more than one form. For example, the English indefinite article can be pronounced as a or as an in different contexts. This is called allomorphy (see Finegan and the Hungarian problem below).

Below are two practice problems. Take as much time as you need to work out each problem on your own before consulting the solutions that follow.

1.

Turkish (Altaic)

Examine this data set from Turkish and answer the questions that follow.1 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. deniz ocean to (an) ocean of (an) ocean to (a) house from (a) house from (a) little house in (a) little ocean in (a) hand 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. elim my hand hands teeth of our tooth of our teeth to (a) little hand

denize denizin eve evden evd"ikden elde denizd"ikde

eller di!ler di!imizin eld"ike di!lerimizin

denizlerimizde in our oceans evd"iklerimizde in our little houses

a.

Give the Turkish morpheme that corresponds to each of the following meanings or functions: ________________ ________________ ________________ ________________ in to ________________ ________________ my of our

_________________ ocean ________________ house ________________ hand ________________ tooth

from ________________
PLURAL

________________ little

b.

What is the order of morphemes in a Turkish word (in terms of noun stem, PLURAL, etc.)?

c.

How would one say of our little hands in Turkish?

The symbol d" represents the first sound in the word jar; the symbol # represents the first sound in show. This information does not affect the working of the problem.

2.

Hungarian (Uralic)

The following Hungarian sentences have been translated, but individual words and morphemes have not been identified. Examine the data carefully and answer the questions below. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. a. mi magasak vagyunk n beteg vagyok ti betegek vagytok mi lankadtak vagyunk te magas vagy ti szpek vagytok mi betegek vagyunk n lankadt vagyok ti nagyon kedvesek vagytok ti nagyon magas vagytok te kedves vagy ti nagyon betegek vagytok n sovny vagok we are tall I am sick you (PL) are sick we are weary you (SG) are tall you (PL) are beautiful we are sick I am weary you (PL) are very nice you (PL) are very tall you (SG) are nice you (PL) are very sick I am thin

Give the Hungarian morpheme that corresponds to each of the following meanings or functions. Note that one morpheme in the data has two forms.
PERSONAL PRONOUNS

ADJECTIVES

_________________ ________________ ________________ ________________

sick thin weary tall

________________ ________________

nice beautiful

________________ ________________ ________________ ________________

I you (SG) we you (PL)

VERB AGREEMENT MARKERS

OTHERS

________________ ________________ ________________ ________________ b. c.

1st PERSON SG 1 PERSON PL 2 PERSON SG 2ND PERSON PL

ND

________________ ________________ ________________

stem of to be
PLURAL for adjectives

st

very

Which morpheme has two forms? Based on the data set, what would be your hypothesis as to when each form is used? How would one say the following in Hungarian? we are very thin ____________________________________ you (SG) are beautiful ____________________________________

Turkish solution A useful approach to morphology problems is to isolate pairs in the glosses that differ by only one element. By comparing the differences in glosses with the corresponding differences in the words or sentences, you will be able to match morphemes with their meanings. As you identify each morpheme, be sure to write it down with its meaning. You will need this information to identify other morphemes in the data set. When you have finished identifying all the morphemes, the last step is to plug your morphemes back in to each word based on the gloss, to make sure that your hypotheses are correct. If you find that you do not end up with the correct word after plugging the morphemes back into words, then you have made a mistake somewhere along the line and should rework the problem. a. deniz ev el di# -d"ik ocean house hand tooth little -de -e -den -ler in to from
PLURAL

-im my -in of -imiz our

b.

order of morphemes
NOUN STEM

+ little +PLURAL + POSSESSIVE DETERMINER + POSTPOSITION eld"iklerimizin

c.

of our little hands

Hungarian solution a. beteg sick sovny thin lankadt weary magas tall kedves nice szp beautiful n te mi ti -ok -unk I you (SG) we you (PL) 1st PERSON SG 1st PERSON PL ! 2ND PERSON SG -tok 2ND PERSON PL vagy stem of to be -ak/-ek PLURAL for adjectives nagyon very

b.

The plural morpheme for adjectives in these data has two forms, -ek and -ak. When a morpheme has more than one pronunciation, it is called ALLOMORPHY. Youll notice that the adjectives beteg, kedves, and szp take -ek; magas, lankadt, and sovny take -ak. This is part of a general process in Hungarian (and in some other languages, e.g. Turkish) called VOWEL HARMONY, which is when affixes contain vowels that share features with vowels in the stem of the word. Note that -ek occurs with adjective stems that contain /e/; these are vowels pronounced with the tongue situated at the front of the mouth. On the other hand, -ak is affixed to words that contain /a/ (and also /o/); these vowels are pronounced with the tongue situated at the back of the mouth. Well talk more about these phenomena in the phonology unit. we are very thin you (SG) are beautiful mi nagyon sovnyak vagyunk te szp vagy 4

c.