Linguistics homework answers

LING 310 Assignment #1

Due in class on Monday, July 8th.

Answer each of the questions neatly on this paper. You should plan out your answers before you write them down; I will not grade messy work. This assignment has 5 tasks, covering material from chapter 2 (Morphology).

Task One: Break each word given below into its component morphemes and identify each in terms of free or bound , derivational or inflectional , prefixes or suffixes. Place a plus sign between each morpheme boundary.(10 points)

a. unhealthy

b. modernize

c. skiers

d. incompletion

e. reestablishes

Task Two: For each word below, draw a word tree to show its internal hierarchical structure. (6 points)

a. anticlimaxes

b. encouragement

c. digitizes

d. resettled

Task Three : Identify the morphology of each of the following languages as isolating, agglutinating or inflecting. (6 points)

a. Gbe (spoken in Ghana and Togo):

mí tò kpá dó ná Yetì

1pl Prog fence plant give Yeti

‘We are building a fence for Yeti.’

____________ morphology

b. Mayan (spoken in Mexico)

li-j-chan-ub-tas-van-ej-e

the-Human.Agent-learn-become-Causative-Habitual-Nominalizer-end.of.phrase

‘the one who habitually causes (someone) to learn’

____________ morphology

c. Greek

lu-e: ‘You should release’

release-2nd person singular present middle subjunctive

________________ morphology

d. Aztecan:

ni-ki-ta-k

I-it-see-past

‘I saw it.’

______________ morphology

Task Four: From the following data sets, identify the strings of sounds which correspond to the

morphemes in each language. (13 points)

Swahili

Swahili is a Bantu language which is spoken primarily in East Africa.

anapenda 'he likes' alimona 'he saw him'

atapenda 'he will like' alimsaidia 'he helped him'

alipenda 'he liked' alimpiga 'he hit him'

amependa 'he has liked' alimchukua 'he carried him'

alinipenda 'he liked me' alimua 'he killed him'

alikupenda 'he liked you' ananitazama 'he looks at me'

alimpenda 'he liked him' atakusikia 'he will hear you'

alitupenda 'he liked us' alitupanya 'he cured us'

aliwapenda 'he liked them' ninakupenda 'I like you'

nitampenda 'I will like him' nitawapenda 'I will like them'

Pronouns Tenses Verbs

he: [present]: see:

me: [future]: help:

you: [past]: hit:

him: [past part.]: carry:

us: kill:

them: look:

I: hear:

cure:

like:

Translate the following English sentences into Swahili:

a. He has hit me.

b. He helps us.

c. I will look at you.

Task Five: Do 2-16 on page 70 from your textbook (5 points)