MORPHOLOGY TEST

I. Underline the roots of the following words in the following table.

1 womanhood 11 naturalization
2 biomass 12 Americans
3 dissolve 13 egoism
4 favouritism 14 unenlivened
5 personify 15 infamous
6 organisation 16 disenthrone
7 remake 17 paranormality
8 gangsterdom 18 agreeableness
9 befriend 19 motivating
1 idolize 20 classification
0

II. Identify the number of morphemes in each of the following words in the table below.

2
E.g. teaching morphemes E.g. undecided 3 morphemes
1 interestingly 11 innermost
2 counterdeclaration 12 friendliest
3 preprofessional 13 constructions
4 purification 14 gangsterdom
5 insufferably 15 reimbursement
6 hopefully 16 atomizers
7 expressionism 17 unfavourable
8 irreplaceability 18 gruesomely
9 allomorphs 19 atomizers
10 ungentlemanly 20 insupportable

III. Write the meaning of the underlined bound morphemes.

1. semivowel…………………..……. 6. antifreeze…………………
2. illegal……………………….….… 7. communist ………………
3. imperfect …………………….…… 8. unisex …………………..
4. intervene …………… ……....... 9. manuscript ……………..
5. intramural ……… ……………. 10. circumfix ……………….

IV. How would you classify the way of forming the plural of the following nouns in
Maori, the indigenous Malayo-Polynesian language of New Zealand?
Singular Plural
______________________________________________________________________
‘woman’ wahine waahine ‘women’
‘parent’ matua maatua ‘parents’
‘ancestor’ tipuna tiipuna ‘ancestors’
V. Mark (√) the following items in the table below as simple words, complex
words, compound words, and grammatical structures.
Simple Complex Compound Grammatical
words words words structures
E.g.: eater √
1. at any other place
2. review
3. apparatus
4. circumspect
5. editorial
6. labour force
7. the early summer
8. desk
9. mannish
10. convene
11. advanced English
practice
12. write
13. brain drain
14. dust from sawing
15. hope
16. bus stop
17. global warming
18. closure
19. cook
20. traffic lights
VI. State the word formation process of each of the following words in the table below.
Examples: UFO > acronym Ad > clipping
1 camcorder 11 smog
2 open-ended 12 button (the shirt)
3 sandwich 13 kodak
4 piano 14 PIN
5 ID 15 house-keep
6 hopeless 16 giggle
7 typhoon 17 chunnel
8 bath tub 18 teller
9 exam 19 doc
10 plane 20 flu
VII. Mark (√) each of the following statements true or false.
TRUE FALSE
1 The variant forms of a morpheme are called its allomorphs.
2 Compounding is simply the joining of two or more words into a single
words.
3 ‘-ish’ in ‘Boyishness’ is an infix.
4 Sometimes, a root can undergo a change in the placement of stress or
tone to reflect a change in its category.
5 English orthography is not consistent in representing compounds since
they are sometimes written as single words, sometimes with an
intervening hyphen, and sometimes as separate words.
6 Clipping is a process that creates a new word by removing a real or
supposed affix from another word in the language.
7 ‘Buzz, hiss, sizzle, and cuckoo’ are borrowed words.
8 / -s/, /-iz/, and /-z/ are three morphologically conditioned allomorphs of
the inflectional noun plural morpheme {-s pl.}.
9 Inflectional suffixes do not pile up; only one ends a word.
10 Blending is a process whereby a word is formed from the initials or
beginning segments of a succession of words.
 HCMC UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES-INFORMATION TECHOLOGY
MORPHOLOGY TEST
TIME LIMIT: 90’
(KEY)
I. Underline the roots of the following words in the following table. (1.0m)

1 womanhood 11 naturalization

2 biomass 12 Americans

3 dissolve 13 egoism
4 favouritism 14 unenlivened
5 personify 15 infamous
6 organisation 16 disenthrone
7 remake 17 paranormality
8 gangsterdom 18 agreeableness
9 befriend 19 motivating
1 idolize 20 classification
0
II. Identify the number of morphemes in each of the following words in the table
below. (1.0m)

2
E.g. interesting morphemes E.g. undecided 3 morphemes
1 interestingly 3 11 innermost 3
2 counterdeclaration 4 12 friendliest 3
3 preprofessional 5 13 constructions 4
4 purification 3 14 gangsterdom 3
5 insufferably 4 15 reimbursement 4
6 hopefully 3 16 atomizers 4
7 expressionism 4 17 insufferably 4
8 irreplaceability 5 18 gruesomely 3
9 allomorphs 3 19 atomizers 4
10 ungentlemanly 4 20 insupportable 3

III. Write the meaning of the underlined bound morphemes. (2.0ms)

1. semivowel……half………………….6. antifreeze………against…………

2. illegal………not……………. 7. communist ……………person……

3. imperfect ………not……………….… 8. unisex ………one…………….

4. intervene ………between ……....... 9. manuscript …………hand………….…

5. intramural ………in/inside ………. 10. circumfix ………………around….…...

IV. Mark (√) the following items in the table below as simple words, complex
words, compound words, and grammatical structures. (1.0m)
 Simple Complex Compound Grammatical
word word word structure
E.g.: eater √
1. at any other place √
2. review √
3. apparatus √
4. circumspect √
5. editorial √
6. labour force √
7. the early summer √
8. desk √
9. mannish √
10. convene √
11. advanced English √
practice
12. write √
13. brain drain √
14. dust from sawing √
15. hope √
16. bus stop √
17. global warming √
18. closure √
19. cook √
20. traffic lights √

V. State the word formation process of each of the following words in the table
below. (2.0ms)

Examples: UFO > acronym, Ad > clipping

1 camcorder blending 11 smog blending
2 open-ended compound 12 button (the conversion
shirt)
3 sandwich proper name 13 kodak invention
4 piano borrowing 14 PIN acronym
5 ID acronym 15 house-keep back-formation
6 hopeless derivation 16 giggle echoism
7 typhoon borrowing 17 chunnel blending
8 bath tub compound 18 teller derivation
9 exam clipping 19 doc clipping
10 plane clipping 20 plane clipping
VI. How would you classify the way of forming the plural of the following nouns in
Maori, the indigenous Malayo-Polynesian language of New Zealand? (1.0m)

Singular Plural
______________________________________________________________________
‘woman’ wahine waahine ‘women’
‘parent’ matua maatua ‘parents’
‘ancestor’ tipuna tiipuna ‘ancestors’

The vowel of the first syllable is doubled.

VII. Mark (√) each of the following statements true or false. (2.0 ms)

TRUE FALSE
1 The variant forms of a morpheme are called its √
allomorphs.
2 Compounding is simply the joining of two or more √
words into a single words.
3 ‘-ish’ in ‘Boyishness’ is an infix. √
4 Sometimes, a root can undergo a change in the √
placement of stress or tone to reflect a change in its
category.
5 English orthography is not consistent in representing √
compounds since they are sometimes written as single
words,sometimes with an intervening hyphen, and
sometimes as separate words.
6 Clipping is a process that creates a new word by √
removing a real or supposed affix from another word
in the language.
7 ‘Buzz, hiss, sizzle, and cuckoo’ are borrowed words. √
8 / -s/, /-iz/, and /-z/ are three morphologically √
conditioned allomorphs of the inflectional noun plural
morpheme {-s pl.}.
9 Inflectional suffixes do not pile up; only one ends a √
word.
1 Blending is a process whereby a word is formed from √
0 the initials or beginning segments of a succesion of
words.

GOOD LUCK!