Morphology: Identifying Morphemes 1.1

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This is a very basic exercise that will help you learn to analyze a language's morphology by identifying lexical and phrasal structures. Study the data sets and answer the questions that follow.

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Question 1

Estonian

ma magan ‘I sleep’ sa magad ‘You (sg.) sleep’ ta magab ‘He/she sleeps’ me magame ‘We sleep’ te magate ‘You (pl.) sleep’ nad magavad ‘They sleep’ The verbal stem for 'sleep' is:

A	maga-
B	ma- Hint: 'maga' is the only part of the verbal stem that appears in each example. ma maga-n ‘I sleep’ sa maga-d ‘You (sg.) sleep’ ta maga-b ‘He/she sleeps’ me maga-me ‘We sleep’ te maga-te ‘You (pl.) sleep’ nad maga-vad ‘They sleep’
C	mag- Hint: 'maga' is the only part of the verbal stem that appears in each example. ma maga-n ‘I sleep’ sa maga-d ‘You (sg.) sleep’ ta maga-b ‘He/she sleeps’ me maga-me ‘We sleep’ te maga-te ‘You (pl.) sleep’ nad maga-vad ‘They sleep’

Question 2

Modern Persian

Singular Plural Gloss zaen zaenan ‘woman/women’ baeradaer baeradaeran ‘brother(s)’ pedar pedaran ‘father(s)’ maeleke maelekean ‘queen(s)’ The plural morpheme is:

A	-an
B	-æn Hint: The morpheme '-an' can be found at the right edge of each noun and inflects each for plural.
C	-n Hint: The morpheme '-an' can be found at the right edge of each noun and inflects each for plural.

Question 3

Turkish singular plural gloss dost dostlar ‘friend/friends’ baš bašlar ‘head/heads’ yol yollar ‘road/roads’ The plural morpheme is:

A	-ar Hint: '-lar' is the only consistent affix attached to each root. dost dos-lar ‘friend/friends’ baš baš-lar ‘head/heads’ yol yol-lar ‘road/roads’
B	-lar
C	-r Hint: '-lar' is the only consistent affix attached to each root. dost dos-lar ‘friend/friends’ baš baš-lar ‘head/heads’ yol yol-lar ‘road/roads’

Question 4

Hungarian

/kapu/ ‘door’ /kapuk/ ‘doors’

/embere/ ‘person’ /emberek/ ‘people’

/apa/ ‘father/ /apák/ ‘fathers’

/alma/ ‘apple’ /almák/ ‘apples’

The suffix -k: is:

A	neither Hint: The suffix '-k' is the plural marker thus changes neither the meaning of the words nor the part of speech. It is an inflectional morpheme.
B	inflectional
C	derivational Hint: The suffix '-k' is the plural marker thus changes neither the meaning of the words nor the part of speech. It is an inflectional morpheme.

Question 5

Swahili

ninasoma ‘I read’ unasoma ‘you read’ anasoma ‘he reads’ nitasoma ‘I will read’ utasoma ‘you will read’ atasoma ‘he will read’ The first person singular marker is:

A	ni-
B	na- Hint: In the 1st person singular example: ninasoma ‘I read’ we see 'soma' as the verb root, 'na-' as the present marker, thus 'ni-' remains. ni-na-soma
C	-ma Hint: In the 1st person singular example: ninasoma ‘I read’ we see 'soma' as the verb root, 'na-' as the present marker, thus 'ni-' remains. ni-na-soma '-ma' is the second syllable in the verb root.

Question 6

Estonian

ma magan ‘I sleep’ sa magad ‘You (sg.) sleep’ ta magab ‘He/she sleeps’ me magame ‘We sleep’ te magate ‘You (pl.) sleep’ nad magavad ‘They sleep’ The third person plural marker is:

A	-vad
B	-me Hint: Each verbal phrase contains the root 'maga' thus to locate the third person plural suffix, we must find the third person plural verb in the gloss and remove the root. In this case, we are left with '-vad'.
C	- b Hint: Each verbal phrase contains the root 'maga' thus to locate the third person plural suffix, we must find the third person plural verb in the gloss and remove the root. In this case, we are left with '-vad'.

Question 7

Hindi

kamzor 'weak' kamzori 'weakness' gari:b 'poor' gari:bi 'poverty' sard 'cold' sardi 'coldness' sa:f 'clean' safa:i 'cleanliness' nek 'noble' neki 'nobility' Based on this data, the suffix -i: forms:

A	a noun from an adjective
B	a noun from another noun Hint: In each case we see that the words in the left column are adjectives and in the right are nouns. Thus we can say that the suffix '-i:' derives nouns from adjectives.
C	an adjective from a noun Hint: In each case we see that the words in the left column are adjectives and when 'i:' is attached in the right column, nouns are derived. Thus we can say that the suffix '-i:' derives nouns from adjectives.

Question 8

Swahili

1. ninasoma ‘I read’ 2. unasoma ‘you read’ 3. anasoma ‘he reads’ 4. nitasoma ‘I will read’ 5. utasoma ‘you will read’

6. atasoma 'he will read'

The future tense marker is:

A	'ata' Hint: The verbal root that we see consistently in 1-5 is 'soma'. In the 1-3 which are in the present tense form, we consistently see 'na-' whereas in the future tense (4 and 5) 'ta-' replaces 'na-'. If this was not clear, you can match the person markers for singular/plural pairs. 1st person: is 'ni-' 2nd person is 'u-' 3rd person is 'a-'
B	'na' Hint: The verbal root that we see consistently in 1-5 is 'soma'. In the 1-3 which are in the present tense form, we consistently see 'na-' whereas in the future tense (4 and 5) 'ta-' replaces 'na-'. If this was not clear, you can match the person markers for singular/plural pairs. 1st person: is 'ni-' 2nd person is 'u-' 3rd person is 'a-'
C	'ta'

Question 9

Zoque

yomo ‘woman’ yomota?m ‘women’ nanah ‘mother’ nanahta?m ‘mothers’ The suffix '-ta?m' marks:

A	a noun for feminine Hint: By looking at the gloss, it is evident that when '-ta?m' is attached to the singular root noun, the noun becomes plural. There is no marker for the feminine or singular forms.
B	a noun for singular Hint: By looking at the gloss, it is evident that when '-ta?m' is attached to the singular root noun, the noun becomes plural. There is no marker for the feminine or singular forms.
C	a noun for plural

Question 10

Cree

ospwa:kan ‘pipe’ nitospwa:kan ‘my pipe’ so:niya ‘money’ niso:niya ‘my money’ wiya:ʃ ‘meat’’ niwiya:ʃ ‘my meat’ e:mihkwa:n ‘spoon’ nite:mihkwa:n ‘my spoon’ astotin ‘hat’ nitastotin ‘my hat’ The possessive marker is:

A	nit- Hint: We see 'ni-' attach to a consonant initial root and '-nit' to a vowel initial root. so:niya ‘money’ ni-so:niya ‘my money’ astotin ‘hat’ nit-astotin ‘my hat’
B	ni- Hint: We see 'ni-' attach to a consonant initial root and '-nit' to a vowel initial root. so:niya ‘money’ ni-so:niya ‘my money’ astotin ‘hat’ nit-astotin ‘my hat’
C	ni- or nit-

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Morphology: Identifying Morphemes 1.1

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