LING 1000 Tutorial 1 in-class exercise -SOLUTIONS Week 2, 2019

Developing a short description of an unknown language

a. Make a list of the morphemes found in the data.

aherre ‘kangaroo’
apmwe ‘snake’
are ‘see’
arlkwe ‘eat’
arlpentye ‘tall/long’
artwe ‘man’
kngerre ‘big’
kwatye ‘water’
kwatyekwatye ‘translucent rock/quartz’
kweke ‘little’
mwarre ‘good’
ntywe ‘drink’
pwerte ‘look at’
tanthe ‘spear’
therrke ‘grass’
ulpmernte ‘duststorm’
ulpmernteulpmernte ‘reddy-brown’
-le subject of a transitive verb
-ke past tense
-rne present tense
-tyenhe future tense

b. The morphemes you found in (a) form the ‘lexicon’. Group the lexicon into word classes
of ‘like’ forms and give a name to each word class.
Nouns aherre ‘kangaroo’  There is at least one of these
apmwe ‘snake’ words in every sentence.
artwe ‘man’  All these forms sometimes take
kwatye ‘water’ the suffix -le.
kwatyekwatye ‘translucent  None of these forms ever takes the
rock/quartz’ suffixes -ke or -tyenhe (tense
therrke ‘grass’ suffixes).
ulpmernte ‘duststorm’

Adjectives arlpentye ‘tall/long’  Some of the sentences have these

kngerre ‘big’ words.
kweke ‘little’  Always next to a noun.
mwarre ‘good’  These forms sometimes take the
ulpmernteulpmernte ‘reddy- suffix -le.
brown’  None of these forms ever takes
the suffixes -ke or -tyenhe (tense
suffixes).
 Verbs are ‘see’  There is one of these words in
arlkwe ‘eat’ each sentence.
ntywe ‘drink’  These forms can take the
pwerte ‘look at’ suffixes -ke or -tyenhe (tense
tanthe ‘spear’ suffixes).
 None of these forms ever takes the
suffix -le.

c. Describe the order of words. Are there rules about what word class must appear first,
second or last? Are there rules about ordering of nouns and adjectives with respect to each
other?
• Verbs can appear in any position.
• Nouns must precede adjectives.

d. Describe how you can tell who is doing what to whom in this language.
• The suffix -le attaches to the last noun or adjective of the transitive subject (also
called the ‘agent’).

e. Describe how colour words are formed.

• Reduplication of a noun

f. Translate:
Kwatye mwarre ntywerne artwe kwekele.
‘The little man is drinking good water.’

‘The good big man is spearing the green snake.’

Artwe mwarre kngerrele tantherne apmwe therretherrke.