General

Linguistics
GC 206

Sadaf Riaz
Quiz 1 Total Marks= 10 Time: 15 mins

Q1- Why bottom-up approach is recommended for learning a new language?

Explain with examples. 2
Q2- How sound is perceived by the brain when it reaches human ear?
2
Q3- Define the following with examples; 2 marks each
a- Voiced and Voiceless
b- Palatal sounds and fricative
c- Production of vowel sounds
 3.1 Morphemes
 the smallest unit of linguistic meaning.
 A single word may be composed of one or more
morphemes.
 Example
 de+nature+al+ize+ation
 un+system+atic+al+ly
 (the words denaturalization and unsystematically can be
analyzed into 5 separate morphemes)
 3.1 Morphemes

 Morpheme vs. Syllable

 boy (1 morpheme, 1 syllable)
 desire, lady, water (1 morpheme, 2 syllables)
 crocodile (1 morpheme, 3 syllables)
 salamander (1 morpheme, 4 syllables )
 3.1 Morphemes
 Two morphemes
 boy + ish
 desire + able
 Three morphemes
 boy + ish + ness
 desire + able + ity
 3.1 Morphemes
 Four morphemes
 gentle + man + li + ness
 un + desire + able + ity
 More than four morphemes
 un + gentle + man + li + ness
 anti + dis + establish + ment + ari + an + ism
 3.2 Allomorphs
 Morphemes vs. Morphs
 Morphemes are abstract units, which are realized in speech
by discrete units known as morphs.
 Morphs are actual spoken, minimal carriers of meaning.
 Monomorphemic words: bird, tree, green, sad, want…
 3.2 Allomorphs
 Some morphemes are realized by more than one
morph according to their position in a word; such
alternative morphs are known as allomorphs.
 {-s plurality}=
 /s/
/z/
/iz/
Replacive allomorphs
Zero allomorphs
 3.2 Allomorphs

/-id/
 {-d past}=
/-t/

/-d/
Zero allomorphs
 3.2 Allomorphs
 {NEGATION}= in- insane; inactive;
incomplete
improper;
im- imbalance;
immovable
irregular;
ir- irreconcilable;
irrevocable
il- illegal; illegible
3.2 Allomorphs

 Explain why a/an are allomorphs of one

morpheme.
 3.2 Allomorphs
 Explain why a/an are allomorphs of one
morpheme.
a book/tree/cup…
a university…
 {Article Singular}=
an apple/orange…
Morphological Analysis

 Break into components

 List all different ideas.
 Look for unusual combinations
 Morphological Analysis
 Detailed analysis of making a word is called
Morphological Analysis.
 Break up the object into it’s key components.
 List all the different ideas we have for each component.
 Look for unusual combinations that spark ideas
 Morphological Description
 The difference between derivational and inflectional morphemes is worth emphasizing.
 An inflectional morpheme never changes the grammatical category of a word.
 For example, both old and older are adjectives. The -er inflection here (from Old English -ra) simply
creates a different version of the adjective.
 However, a derivational morpheme can change the grammatical category of a word.
 The verb teach becomes the noun teacher if we add the derivational morpheme -er (from Old English
-ere). So, the suffix -er in Modern English can be an inflectional morpheme as part of an adjective and
also a distinct derivational morpheme as part of a noun. Just because they look the same (-er) doesn’t
mean they do the same kind of work.
 Activity
 The child’s wildness shocked the teachers has __________ morphemes.
 Can an English word have more than one prefix? Give examples. More than one suffix? For example? More
than one of each? Give examples. Divide the examples you collected into their root, derivational, and
inflectional morphemes.
 True or False?
a. Every English word contains at least one root.
b. In English, derivational morphemes occur before inflectional morphemes.
c. In English, derivational suffixes regularly occur before inflectional suffixes.
d. In English, a few inflectional morphemes can occur as prefixes.
e. Every root in English is a free morpheme (i.e., there is no such thing as a bound root.) (Hint: consider receive,
deceive, conceive, perceive.)
f. In English, some morphemes have both a free and a bound allomorph. (Hint: consider able, ability; France,
Franco-.)
 Problems in Morphological Description
 The inflectional morpheme -s is added to cat and we get the plural cats.
 What is the inflectional morpheme that makes sheep the plural of sheep, or men the plural of
man?
 If -al is the derivational suffix added to the stem institution to give us institutional, then can we
take -al off the word legal to get the stem leg? Unfortunately, the answer is “No.”
 There are other problematic cases, especially in the analysis of different languages. For example,
the relationship between law and legal is a reflection of the historical influence of different
languages on English word forms. The modern form law is a result of a borrowing into Old
English (lagu) from a Scandinavian source over 1,000 years ago. Consequently, there is no
derivational relationship between the noun law and the adjective legal in English.
 An extremely large number of English words owe their morphological patterning to languages
like Latin and Greek.
 Consequently, a full description of English morphology will have to take account of both
historical influences and the effect of borrowed elements.