MORPHOLOGY EXERCISES

The questions that follow relate to the lecture notes and exercises for the 'Morphology'
topic.

2. Identify the morphemes for each of the following words, in the order that they appear in the
word.
Word Morphemes
Inputs IN PUT -S
+  + 
Components COMPONENT -S
+ 
Elements + 
Indo-European INDO EUROPE -AN
+  + 
Persian + 
Within + 
Another AN OTHER
+ 
Notable NOTE ABLE
+ 

1(a). From the following list of words, select five words with inflectional morphology.

Click on 'Check Inflectional' to check.

1(b). Clear your answers and then select five words with derivational morphology.

Click on 'Check Derivational' to check.

elements example egg such

gain feature off cram
and great ordering tend
unkind have one the
as linked morphology these
some Indo-European Persians thought
case speech killed within

The questions that follow relate to the lecture notes and exercises for the 'Morphology'
topic.

Consider the following Modern Greek and English sentences

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 (which have the same meaning):
O skilos efaye tin pondiki The dog ate the mouse
I pondiki efaye to skilo The mouse ate the dog
Oi skiloi efagan tis pondikes The dogs ate the mice
Oi pondikes efagan tous skilous The mice ate the dogs
To fayito tou skilou... The dog's food...
To fayito ton skilon... The dogs' food...
To fayito tis pondikis... The mouse's food...
To fayito ton pondikon... The mice's food...
Identify all the morphemes in the written forms of the corresponding
Greek and English words for dog and mouse. Some are done for you.
'dog' 'mouse'
Greek : English
skil+os
 :  Greek : English
skil+o pondik+i
 :   : 
skil+ou pondik+is
 :   : 
skil+oi
 :   : 
skil+ous pondik+on
 :   :
dog+s'
 : 

Exercise 4.2: Inflectional Affixes

For each of the bold words in the passage from Wallace Stegner's "The Dump Ground" below,
label the inflectional suffix:

pres =   present tense   compr =   comparative degree

past =   past tense   supl =   superlative degree
prsprt =   present participle   poss =   possessive case
pstprt =   past participle   pl =   plural number
The place fascinated us, as it should have. For this was the kitchen midden of all the civilization
we knew. It gave us the most tantalizing glimpses into our neighbors' lives and our own; it
provided an aesthetic distance from which to know ourselves.

The town dump was our poetry and our history. We took it home with us by the
wagonload,bringing back into town the things the town had used and thrown away. Some little
part of what we gathered, mainly bottles, we managed to bring back to usefulness, but most of
our gleanings we left lying around barn or attic or cellar until in some renewed fury of spring
cleanup our families carted them off to the dump again, to be rescued and briefly treasured by
some other boy. Occasionally something we really valued with a passion was snatched from us in
horror andreturned at once. That happened to the mounted head of a white mountain
goat, somebody'strophy from old times and the far Rocky Mountains, that I brought home one

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day. My mother took one look and discovered that his beard was full of moths.

I remember that goat; I regret him yet. Poetry is seldom useful, but always memorable. If I were
a sociologist anxious to study in detail the life of any community I would go very early to its
refuse piles. For a community may be as well judged by what it throws away - what it has to
throw away and what it chooses to - as by any other evidence. For whole civilizations we
sometimes have no more of the poetry and little more of the history than this (from Wolf
Willow1955: 35-36).

Exercise 4.6: Derivational Prefixes and Suffixes

1.  Sort the prefixes in the words below into the following seven categories according to
meaning:

   a.      Time
   b.      Number
   c.      Place
   d.      Degree
   e.      Privative
   f.      Negative, and
   g.      Size
Each category has two prefixes. After you have classified the prefixes, use a dictionary to
identify whether the prefix is native English, Latin, or Greek in origin.

Post-date (Time )   Mal-adjusted   macrocosm   forewarn

Bi-focal (Number)   Out-door   Hyper-activity   demilitarize
megawatt   defrost   polyglot   nonentity
disclose   foreshadow   macroeconomics   malpractice
polygon   bisexual   postelection   nonsmoker
subway   disarm   megalosaur   outhouse
ultraconservative   hyperthyroidism   subfloor   ultraviolet

2.  Sort the suffixes in the words below according to their class-changing function. The
categories include the following:

(   N > N
a)
(   V > N

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 b)
(   A > N
c)
(   N/A > V
d)
(   N > A
e)
(   V > A
f)
(   N/A >
g) Adv
(There are two examples of each suffix.)

broaden   syntactic   width   idealism

participant   falsehood   closure   straighten
rhetorician   clockwise   refusal   vaccinate
gangster   stardom   warmth   tireless
twofold   trial   accidental   selfish
advisory   likelihood   friendless   politician
conservatism   mobster   kingdom   facilitate
inhabitant   contradictory   boyish   seizure
manifold   stepwise   thankless   global
historic   penniless

3. (a) Can you think of a reason why -en may attach to some adjectives, but not to others,
as shown below?
  blacken     broaden     stiffen     ripen
  deafen     tighten     soften     loosen
*thinen    *longen    *slimen
*nearen    *slowen    *narrowen
*highen    *holyen    *noblen

(b) Can you think of a reason why -ed may attach to some nouns, but not to others, as
shown below?

  brown-haired       kind-hearted       low-spirited

  left-handed       narrow-minded       strong-headed
*brown-coated      *heavy-pursed      *long-skirted
*one-childed      *two-catted      *silly-hatted

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4.  Which is the proper derivation of unknowledgeable? Explain.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Exercise 4.8: Compounding

1.  Identify the syntactic pattern in each of the following compounds and express it in a
lexical rule.

    Example: gravedigger N + V + -er > N

(a) hovercraft (m) dugout (y) lukewarm

(b) dairyman (n) Hard-heart-ed [ A+N+-ed] (z) law-abiding
(c) bath-towel (o) homesick   [N-A] (aa) far-reaching
(d) goldfish (p) proofread   [N-V] (bb) homemade

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 (e) inroads (q) overqualified [A-V-ED] (cc) clean-cut
(f) bystander (r) overachieve (dd) fighter-bomber
(g) setback (s) badmouth (ee) earthenware
(h) meltdown (t) redhead (ff) driver's seat
(i) blackout (u) birth control (gg) baking powder
(j) stand-in (v) breakfast (hh) drip-coffee
(k) turnout (w) thoroughgoing (ii) wisecrack
(l) money-hungry (x) quick-change (jj) snowplow

2.  The following words are compounds which also include derivational affixes. Analyze
the words, identifying the roots and their parts of speech, as well all the affixes and
their function as nominalizer, verbalizer, adjectivalizer, or adverbializer.

    Example: housekeeper
            house (root - noun) + keep (root - verb) + -er (nominalizer)
(a) flightworthiness
(b) chatterbox
(c) owner-occupied
(d) freedom-loving
(e) handicraft
(f) broken-hearted
(g) safety-tested
(h) worldly-wise
(i) antiaircraft
(j) machine-readable
(k) chartered accountant

  3.   (a) Look at the following set of words naming berries. The second half of each is the
recognizable root berry. Can you analyze these as compounds?

    blueberry       blackberry       cranberry       marianberry

    strawberry       raspberry       loganberry

Does a more recent formation such as cranapple provide evidence for or against these
forms as compounds?
    (b)  A problem of morphological analysis arises for forms such as the following:
    fish-monger       broadcaster
    gossip-monger       sportscaster

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    scandal-monger       newscaster
    ironmonger
    war-monger
Are these forms compounds?