Practice Exercises in Morphology
Linguistics 201
January 30, 2009
Free and Bound Morphemes
List the morphemes in each word below, and state whether each morpheme is free (F) or
bound (B).
1. creating
2. seaward
3. wastage
4. waiter
5. modernize
6. unhealthy
7. inept
8. implant
9. keys
10. morphology
Derivational and Inflectional Affixes
For each word below, indicate whether the word is morphologically simple (S), includes
an inflectional affix (I), or includes a derivational affix (D).
1. rider
2. colder
3. silver
4. lens
5. legs
6. reader
7 .redder
8. radish
9. redness
10. rotation
Word Trees
For each word below, draw a word tree. Then state whether it has inflectional affixes,
derivational affixes, or both.
1. shipper
2. disobey
3. resettlement
4. anticlimaxes
5. unemployed
Esperanto
5. simply
6. jumping
7. rationalizing
8. activated
10. instituionalizations
Esperanto is an artificial language that was invented by Ludwig Zamenhof in 1887. It was
designed to be easy to learn and is based largely on the languages of western Europe. It is
now primarily spoken in France, although it may also be found in eastern Asia, South
America and eastern Europe. There are now between 200-2,000 native speakers and about
2,000,000 people worldwide speak it as a second language.
Examine the following data from Esperanto and then answer the questions below:
1. bono
‘goodness’
2. instrua
‘instructive’
3. malfacila ‘difficult’
4. patrino
‘mother’
5. instruisto ‘teacher’
6. porti ‘to carry’
7. facila
‘easy’
8. patro
‘father’
9. portisto
‘porter’
10. instrui
‘to instruct’
11. portistino ‘female porter’
12. pura
‘pure’
13. malbone ‘badly’
14. facile
‘easily’
15. bona
‘good’
16. malgranda ‘small’
17. bone
‘well’
18. facilo
‘easiness’
19. granda
‘big’
20. instruo
‘instruction’
A. What are the morphemes that correspond to the following lexical categories and
concepts?
i.
Nouns
iv. Adverbs
ii.
Verbs
v. Feminine
iii.
Adjectives
vi. The opposite (not…)
B. Translate the following English words and phrases into Esperanto.
i.
“purity”
ii.
“bad”
iii.
“female teacher”
From the following data sets, identify the strings of sounds which correspond to the
morphemes in each language.
Swahili
Swahili is a Bantu language which is spoken primarily in East Africa. There are
approximately 800,000 native speakers of Swahili, and some 30,000,000 people (!)
worldwide speak Swahili as a second language.
anapenda
atapenda
alipenda
amependa
alinipenda
alikupenda
alimpenda
alitupenda
aliwapenda
Pronouns
he:
me:
you:
him:
us:
them:
'he likes'
'he will like'
'he liked'
'he has liked'
'he liked me'
'he liked you'
'he likes him'
'he liked us'
'he liked them'
alimona
alimsaidia
alimpiga
alimchukua
alimua
ananitazama
atakusikia
alitupanya
Tenses
[present]:
[future]:
[past]:
[past part.]:
Translate the following English sentences into Swahili:
i. He will look at you.
ii. He has hit me.
iii. He helps us.
'he saw him'
'he helped him'
'he hit him'
'he carried him'
'he killed him'
'he looks at me'
'he will hear you'
'he cured us'
Verbs
see:
help:
hit:
carry:
kill:
look:
hear:
cure:
like:
Cree
Cree is an Algonquian language which is spoken primarily in Canada. There are
approximately 100,000 native speakers, who can be found from the Rocky Mountains in
Alberta all the way to James Bay in northern Quebec.
niwapahten
kimachishen
nitapinan
kiwapahten
nimachishenan
kitapinawaw
Pronouns
I:
You:
We:
You (pl.):
'I see'
'You cut'
'We sit'
'You see'
'We cut'
'You (pl.) sit'
Verbs
see:
cut:
sit:
niwapahtenan
kimachishenawaw
nitapin
kiwapahtenawaw
nimachishen
kitapin
'We see'
'You (pl.) cut'
'I sit'
'You (pl.) see'
'I cut'
'You sit'