Ling 201, Sec.

C (Fall 2009) Masashi Hashimoto Assignment 2

Student Name: [ ] /30 pts

Answer to Assignment 2
Due on Wed., Sept. 30. There are five pages.

Please check this assignment early and ask me questions, if you have any, on Friday and
Monday (don’t forget to bring a copy of this assignment with you in class). The first
problem set might be challenging.

1. Morphological analysis of Turkish [12+1+1+2+2 = 18 pts]

The following data show some Turkish words.

1. [sesin] ‘your voice’ 9. [çölde] ‘in the desert’

2. [gözde] ‘in the eye’ 10. [çöl] ‘desert’
3. [gözlerim] ‘my eyes’ 11. [sesimin] ‘of my voice’
4. [gönüllerimiz] ‘our hearts’ 12. [gözimizin] ‘of our eye’
5. [zilcik] ‘little bell’ 13. [gözlerimizin] ‘of our eyes’
6. [ziller] ‘bells’ 14. [gönülcikim] ‘my little heart’
7. [zilim] ‘my bell’ 15. [çöllerimizde] ‘in our deserts’
8. [zilin] ‘your bell’ 16. [gönülciklerimizde] ‘in our little hearts’

Q1. List all the Turkish morphemes. For each, tell whether it is a root or an affix, and, if
it is an affix, whether it is a prefix, a suffix, an infix, or a circumfix.

Determiners
morpheme English gloss root/affix prefix/suffix/infix/circumfix
-in ‘your’ affix suffix
-im ‘my’ affix suffix
-imiz ‘our’ affix suffix

Nouns
morpheme English gloss root/affix prefix/suffix/infix/circumfix
ses ‘voice’ root
göz ‘eye’ root
gönül ‘heart’ root
zil ‘bell’ root
çöl ‘desert’ root

Prepositions
morpheme English gloss root/affix prefix/suffix/ infix/circumfix
-de ‘in’ affix suffix
-in ‘of’ affix suffix

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Ling 201, Sec. C (Fall 2009) Masashi Hashimoto Assignment 2

Other types of morphemes

morpheme English gloss root/affix prefix/suffix/infix/circumfix
-ler plural marker affix suffix
-cik diminutive (‘little’) affix suffix
(diminutive := a morpheme that shows that something is small. English examples: pig →
piglet, book → booklet, lamb → lambkin, devil → devilkin, etc.)

Grading policy: 1 point for each correct row (namely, 1 point is given if all the three
cells in a row are correct). 0 for any others.

Q2. Does Turkish have a morpheme for the definite determiner (‘the’)? If yes, fill in the
following table. If no, leave it untouched.

Determiners (cont.)
morpheme English gloss root/affix prefix/suffix/infix/circumfix
‘the’

Grading policy: The same as the above question.

Q3. What is [sescik] likely to mean? Answer: (the) little voice

Q4. Now consider what the order of morphemes is in a Turkish word.

In the case of English, for example, a noun (N) can stand on its own, but it can also be
followed by a plural marker (PL, for short), as in dog and dog-s. On the other hand, PL
can’t precede N —we know that *s-dog is ungrammatical in English. In sum,

(1) English allows the following orders of morphemes for a noun:

(i) N (as in dog)
(ii) N PL (as in dog-s)

But it doesn’t allow the following order:

(iii) PL N (as in *s-dog)

Let’s express this fact more concisely as follows.

(2) The order of morphemes in an English noun: N (PL)

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Ling 201, Sec. C (Fall 2009) Masashi Hashimoto Assignment 2

Notice that an optional morpheme is enclosed by parentheses, ( ). If we drop the pa-

rentheses around PL as in (3), it means that a noun is always followed by a plural marker
– but we know that it is not true in English.

(3) ?? The order of morphemes in an English noun: N PL

Your task here is to give a similar rule for Turkish words. It is not so simple as (2): As
can be seen in the data, Turkish can combine much more morphemes than English can.
Here are the possible classes of morphemes that you could have: D (determiner), N
(noun), P (preposition), PL (plural marker), and DIM (diminutive). An answer would look
like the following:

(4) ?? The order of morphemes in a Turkish word: D N (P) PL (DIM)

It means that a Turkish word always begins with D, followed by N, an optional P, (an
obligatory) PL, and an optional DIM. (The answer (4) was made just to give you a feeling
of the answer: it is not correct. It doesn’t accord with the Turkish data at all.)

Answer: The order of morphemes in a Turkish word: N (DIM) (PL) (D) (P)

Grading policy: 2 points for the correct answer. 1 point for the correct order with a
wrong use of parentheses. 0 for any others.

Sidenote: The word for ‘in our little hearts’, (16), will be of great help.

Q5. Lastly, use your rule along with your table to do the following translations:

a. What is likely to be the Turkish word meaning ‘in your desert’?

Answer: çölinde

Sidenote: çöl (‘desert’) + -in (‘your’) + -de (‘in’)

b. What is likely to be the Turkish word meaning ‘of my little bells’?

Answer: zilciklerimin

Sidenote: The answer is decomposed as zil-cik-ler-im-in

(zil = ‘bell’, -cik = diminutive ‘little’, -ler = plural, -im = ‘my’, -in = ‘of’)

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Ling 201, Sec. C (Fall 2009) Masashi Hashimoto Assignment 2

2. Bontoc (Philippines) [5+2+3 = 10 pts]

1. fikas ‘strong’ 5. fumikas ‘he is becoming strong’

2. kilad ‘red’ 6. kumilad ‘he is becoming red’
3. bato ‘stone’ 7. bumato ‘he is becoming stone’
4. fusul ‘enemy’ 8. fumusul ‘he is becoming an enemy’

Q1. List all the Bontoc morphemes. For each, tell whether it is a root or an affix and
whether it is free or bound. Be careful when listing your answer to only list forms that are
morphemes—don’t list forms that are two or more morphemes put together! Use a table
as you did on the previous exercise.

morpheme English gloss root/affix free/bound

fikas ‘strong’ root free
kilad ‘red’ root free
bato ‘stone’ root free
fusul ‘enemy’ root free
-um- ‘he is becoming’ affix bound

Q2. In which way are the ‘he is becoming’ constructions formed from the roots?
a. To answer this, first give the name of the kind of affixation involved: Is the affix a
prefix, a suffix, an infix, or a circumfix?
Answer: infix

b. Then, say exactly where the affix occurs in these words.

Note: Letters are not important in theoretical linguistics! Instead of letters, men-
tion sounds.

Answer: After the first sound (consonant) of the root.

or Before the first vowel of the root.

Grading policy: 1 point for the correct answer. 0 for any others (e.g., if your answer
concerned with letters).

Q3.
a. If pumusi means ‘he is becoming poor’, what is likely to be the Bontoc word for
‘poor’?
Answer: pusi

b. If nitad means ‘dark’, what is likely to be the Bontoc word for ‘he is becoming dark’?

Answer: numitad

c. If pumukaw means ‘he is becoming white’, what is pukaw likely to mean?

Answer: ‘white’

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Ling 201, Sec. C (Fall 2009) Masashi Hashimoto Assignment 2

3. Allomorph: Turkish again [2 pts + E.C. 1 pt]

Consider the following data from Turkish.

1. lokanta ‘a restaurant’ 6. lokantada ‘in a restaurant’

2. ɾandevu ‘an appointment’ 7. ɾandevuda ‘in an appointment’
3. kitap ‘a book’ 8. kitapta ‘in a book’
4. koltuk ‘an armchair’ 9. koltukta ‘in an armchair’
5. taɾaf ‘a side’ 10. taɾafta ‘in a side’

Q1. Clearly, the Turkish morpheme meaning ‘in’ has more than one allomorph. What
are the allomorphs?

Answer: -da and -ta

Grading policy: 2 points for the correct answer. 1 point for an answer which contains
only one mistake (i.e., one wrong allomorph or one missing allomorph). 0 for any others.

Q2. (Optional – Extra Credit Question) Describe the distribution of the allomorphs as
generally as possible.

Note: This is an extra credit question. In the case of late submission, you can’t get
the point for it.

Answer 1: -da follows a voiced sound, while -ta follows a voiceless sound.
or
Answer 2: -da follows a vowel, while -ta follows a consonant.
etc.

Sidenote: We will learn voiced/voiceless distinction in phonetics, so you don’t

need to mind Answer 1 now.

Grading policy: 1 point for the correct answer. 0 for any others (e.g., if your answer
concerned with letters).

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