L is for Linguistic Methods
(and lions)
Linguistic Methods
• As the Greek ‘houses of the donkeys of
the servants of the masters’ problem
shows, many recursive problems need to
be approached via ‘find & replace’ rules
from several different linguistic
methods…
The Lexical “Linguistic Method”
involves identifying the root lexemes
The following is excerpted from Mirjam
Fried’s ‘Kannada’ problem…
For the purpose of this puzzle, the Kannada letters are transcribed
using the Roman alphabet. The letters L, D, T, and N represent a
special pronunciation {‘la,’ ‘tha,’ etc.} with the tongue curled
upward. (There is no definite article in Kannada.)
manege
'to (the) house'
peeTege
'to (the) market'
tandege
'to dad‘
roTTige
'to (the) flat bread'
chaTNige
'to (the) chutney‘
hakkige
'to (the) bird'
taayige
'to (the) mother'
jooLakke
'to (the) corn'
pustakakke 'to (the) book'
simhakke
'to (the) lion'
kalkattakke 'to Calcutta'
manushyanige 'to (the) man'
ammanige 'to mum'
huDuganige 'to (the) boy'
sneehitanige 'to (the) friend'
First step Identify the
root
morphemes
‘house’,
market,’ etc.
The morphological linguistic method identifies the
‘grammatical’ or ‘function’ parts of the word – the ‘bound
morphemes
manege
peeTege
tandege
roTTige
chaTNige
hakkige
taayige
jooLakke
pustakakke
simhakke
kalkattakke
manushyanige
ammanige
huDuganige
sneehitanige
'to (the) house'
'to (the) market'
'to dad‘
'to (the) flat bread'
'to (the) chutney‘
'to (the) bird'
'to (the) mother'
'to (the) corn'
'to (the) book'
'to (the) lion'
'to Calcutta'
'to (the) man'
'to mum'
'to (the) boy'
'to (the) friend'
Second step –
Find the parts
of the words
that
correspond to
the English
preposition 'to‘
Third step - what
is the “rule”
determining
the different
forms?
While root lexemes are fixed, ‘bound morphemes are
‘productive’ or ‘generative’ in that they generate new
forms…
manege
peeTege
tandege
roTTige
chaTNige
hakkige
taayige
jooLakke
pustakakke
simhakke
kalkattakke
manushyanige
ammanige
huDuganige
sneehitanige
'to (the) house'
'to (the) market'
'to dad‘
'to (the) flat
bread'
'to (the) chutney‘
'to (the) bird'
'to (the) mother'
'to (the) corn'
'to (the) book'
'to (the) lion'
'to Calcutta'
'to (the) man'
'to mum'
'to (the) boy'
'to (the) friend'
2. Given these new words in Kannada, can you
complete the table?
hamsa 'swan‘ ..….
'to (the) swan'
akka
'older sister' .
'to (the) older sister'
tangi
'younger sister' …’to (the) younger sister'
So, the Greek problem…
• Have a good look at ‘the Greek problem’ –
spend about ten minutes just thinking
about what the systems must be…
• Then think about the systems, well,
systematically…
• What are the root lexemes?
• What are the word order rules?
So, the Greek problem…
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Starting with the root lexemes gives:
hyi son
dul slave
cyri master
oic house
on donkey
adelph brother
empor merchant
So, the Greek problem…
• What are the word order rules?
So, the Greek problem…
The word order rule is…?
Each sentence starts with two articles,
which are followed by two nouns.
So, the Greek problem…
• What are the grammatical rules:
• [How can you tell what word class a word
belongs to] &
• [which class of words go where]?
So, the Greek problem…
The ‘grammatical’ rules are…?
The first article starts with "h". The second article starts with "t".
Combining lexical root rules and word order rules gives:
The first noun is the owner, and the second noun is the thing that
is owned.
So, the Greek problem…
• What are the morphological rules:
• [How can you tell that word is possessed
or possessor]?
• [How can you tell that word is singular or
plural]?
So, the Greek problem…
The grammatical morpheme analysis reveals the grammatical
number:
• For the owner (first noun in Greek; second noun in English):
• "o:n" is plural and "u" is singular.
• For the owned (second noun in Greek; first noun in English):
• "oi" is plural and "os" is singular.
Matching of articles and nouns:
• The first article has an ending that matches the owned
noun:
("ho" is singular and "hoi" is plural).
Examples:
ho .... dulos
the ... slave (singular)
hoi ... cyroi
the ... masters (plural)
• The second article matches the owner:
("tu" is singular and "tOn" is plural).
Examples:
tu cyriu
the master (singular)
to:n hyio:n
the sons (plural)
• So, the translations are:
the houses of the merchants
• hoi tOn emporOn oicoi
[Start with "hoi" because the owned noun (houses) is plural.
The next word is "tOn" because the owner (merchants) is plural.
The next word is the owner, which will be the root "empor" with
the plural ending “On".
The next word is the owned noun, which will be the root "oic" with
the
plural ending "oi".]
the donkeys of the slave
• hoi tu dulu onoi
[Start with "hoi" because the owned noun (donkeys) is plural.
The next word is "tu" because the owner (slave) is singular.
The next word is the owner, which will be the root "dul" with the
singular ending "u".
The next word is the owned noun, which will be the root "on" with
the plural ending "oi".]
• Kannada is one of the major languages of
India, spoken by more than 25 million
people primarily in the South of the
country, near Bangalore.
• It is a very old language and it uses its
own writing system
Note
1. That this is
a syllabic
system - all
syllables end
in a vowel
phoneme
2. The
different
‘minimal
pairs’ – not
just ‘t’/’d’ as in
English, but
‘t’/‘tha,’ etc.