Exercise 1 Answers

A. Consider the following nouns in Zulu and proceed to look for the recurring
forms:

umfazi “married woman” abafazi “married women”

umfani “boy” abafani “boys”
umzali “parent” abazali “parents”
umfundisi “teacher” abafundisi “teachers”
umbazi “carver” ababazi “carvers”
umlimi “farmer” abalimi “farmers”
umdlali “player” abadlali “players”
umfundi “reader ” abafundi “readers”

a. What is the morpheme meaning “singular” in Zulu?

b. What is the morpheme meaning “plural” in Zulu?
c. List the Zulu stems to which the singular and plural morphemes are attached, and give
their meanings.

B. The following Zulu verbs are derived from noun stems by adding a verbal
suffix:

fundisa “to teach” funda “to read”

lima “to cultivate” baza “to carve”

d. Compare these words to the words in section A that are related in meaning, for
example, umfundisi “teacher,” abafundisi “teachers,” fundisa “to teach.” What is the
derivational suffix that specifies the category verb?
e. What is the nominal suffix (i.e., the suffix that forms nouns)?
f. State the morphological noun formation rule in Zulu.
g. What is the stem morpheme meaning “read”?
h. What is the stem morpheme meaning “carve”?

Exercise 2 Answers

Sweden has given the world the rock group ABBA, the automobile Volvo, and the great film
director Ingmar Bergman. The Swedish language offers us a noun morphology that you can
analyze with the knowledge gained in your class. Consider these Swedish noun forms:

en lampa “a lamp” en bil “a car”

en stol “a chair” en soffa “a sofa”
en tidning “a en katt “a cat”
newspaper” bilar “cars”
lampor “lamps” soffor “sofas”
 stolar “chairs” kattar “cats”
tidningar “newspapers”
bilen “the car”
soffan “the sofa”
lampan “the lamp” katten “the cat”
stolen “the chair” bilarna “the cars”
tidningaren “the sofforna “the sofas”
newspaper” kattarna “the cats”
lamporna “the lamps”
stolarna “the chairs”
tidningarna “the
newspapers”
a. What is the Swedish word for the indefinite article a (or an)?
b. What are the two forms of the plural morpheme in these data? How can you tell which
plural form applies?
c. What are the two forms of the morpheme that make a singular word definite, that is,
correspond to the English article the? How can you tell which form applies?
d. What is the morpheme that makes a plural word definite?
e. In what order do the various suffixes occur when there is more than one?
f. If en flicka is “a girl,” what are the forms for “girls,” “the girl,” and “the girls”?
g. If bussarna is “the buses,” what are the forms for “buses” and “the bus”?

Exercise 3 Answers

Here are some nouns from the Philippine language Cebuano.

sibwano “a Cebuano” binisaja “the Visayan language”

ilokano “an Ilocano” ininglis “the English language”
tagalog “a Tagalog person” tinagalog “the Tagalog language”
inglis “an Englishman” inilokano “the Ilocano language”
bisaja “a Visayan” sinibwano “the Cebuano
language”
a. What is the exact rule for deriving language names from ethnic group names?
b. What type of affixation is represented here?
c. If suwid meant “a Swede” and italo meant “an Italian,” what would be the words for the
Swedish language and the Italian language?
d. If finuranso meant “the French language” and inunagari meant “the Hungarian language,”
what would be the words for a Frenchman and a Hungarian?

Exercise 4 Answers
The following infinitive and past participle verb forms are found in Dutch.

Root Infinitive Past Participle

wandel wandelen gewandeld “walk”
duw duwen geduwd “push”
stofzuig stofzuigen gestofzuigd “vacuum-clean”

a. State the morphological rule for forming an infinitive in Dutch.

b. State the morphological rule for forming the Dutch past participle form.

Exercise 5 Answers

Below are some sentences in Swahili:

mtoto amefika “The child has arrived.”

mtoto anafika “The child is arriving.”
mtoto atafika “The child will arrive.”
watoto wamefika “The children have arrived.”
watoto wanafika “The children are arriving.”
watoto watafika “The children will arrive.”
mtu amelala “The person has slept.”
mtu analala “The person is sleeping.”
mtu atalala “The person will sleep.”
watu wamelala “The persons have slept.”
watu wanalala “The persons are sleeping.”
watu watalala “The persons will sleep.”
kisu kimeanguka “The knife has fallen.”
kisu kinaanguka “The knife is falling.”
kisu kitaanguka “The knife will fall.”
visu vimeanguka “The knives have fallen.”
visu vinaanguka “The knives are falling.”
visu vitaanguka “The knives will fall.”
kikapu kimeanguka “The basket has fallen.”
kikapu kinaanguka “The basket is falling.”
kikapu kitaanguka “The basket will fall.”
vikapu vimeanguka “The baskets have fallen.”
vikapu vinaanguka “The baskets are falling.”
vikapu vitaanguka “The baskets will fall.”

One of the characteristic features of Swahili (and Bantu languages in general) is the existence
of noun classes. Specific singular and plural prefixes occur with the nouns in each class. These
prefixes are also used for purposes of agreement between the subject noun and the verb. In
the sentences given, two of these classes are included (there are many more in the language).

a. Identify all the morphemes you can detect, and give their meanings.
Example:
-toto “child”
m- noun prefix attached to singular nouns of Class I
a- prefix attached to verbs when the subject is a singular noun of Class I

Be sure to look for the other noun and verb markers, including tense markers.

b. How is the verb constructed? That is, what kinds of morphemes are strung together and in
what order?
c. How would you say in Swahili:
(1) “The child is falling.”
(2) “The baskets have arrived.”
(3) “The person will fall.”

Exercise 6 Answers

We mentioned the morphological process of reduplication—the formation of new words

through the repetition of part or all of a word—which occurs in many languages. The following
examples from Samoan illustrate this kind of morphological rule.

manao “he wishes”

mananao “they wish”
matua “he is old”
matutua “they are old”
malosi “he is strong”
malolosi “they are strong”
punou “he bends”
punonou “they bend”
atamaki “he is wise”
atamamaki “they are wise”
savali “he travels”
pepese “they sing”
laga “he weaves”

a. What is the Samoan for:

(1) “they weave”
(2) “they travel”
(3) “he sings”

b. Formulate a general statement (a morphological rule) that states how to form the plural
verb form from the singular verb form.

Exercise 7 Answers

One of the characteristics of Italian is that articles and adjectives have inflectional endings
that mark agreement in gender (and number) with the noun they modify. Based on this
information, answer the questions that follow the list of Italian phrases.

un uomo “a man”
 un uomo robusto “a robust man”
un uomo robustissimo “a very robust man”
una donna robusta “a robust woman”
un vino rosso “a red wine”
una faccia “a face”
un vento secco “a dry wind”

a. What is the root morpheme meaning “robust”?

b. What is the morpheme meaning “very”?
c. What is the Italian for:
(1) “a robust wine”
(2) “a very red face”
(3) “a very dry wine”

Exercise 8 Answers

Following is a list of words from Turkish. In Turkish, articles and morphemes indicating
location are affixed to the noun.
deniz “an ocean” evden “from a house”
denize “to an ocean” evimden “from my house”
denizin “of an ocean” denizimde “in my ocean”
eve “to a house” elde “in a hand”

a. What is the Turkish morpheme meaning “to”?

b. What kind of affixes in Turkish corresponds to English Prepositions (e.g., prefixes, suffixes,
infixes, free morphemes)?
c. What would the Turkish word for “from an ocean” be?
d. How many morphemes are there in the Turkish word denizimde?

Exercise 9 Answers

The following are some verb forms in Chickasaw, a member of the Muskogean family of
languages spoken in south-central Oklahoma. Chickasaw is an endangered language.
Currently, there are only about 100 speakers of Chickasaw, most of whom are over 70 years
old.

sachaaha “I am tall”
chaaha “he/she is tall”
chichaaha “you are tall”
hoochaaha “they are tall”
satikahbi “I am tired”
chitikahbitok “you were tired”
chichchokwa “you are cold”
hopobatok “he was hungry”
 hoohopobatok “they were hungry”
sahopoba “I am hungry”

a. What is the root morpheme for the following verbs?

(1) “to be tall”
(2) “to be hungry”

b. What is the morpheme meaning:

(1) past tense
(2) “I”
(3) “you”
(4) “he/she”

c. If the Chickasaw root for “to be old” is sipokni, how would you say:
(1) “You are old”
(2) “He was old”
(3) “They are old”

Exercise 10 Answers

The language Little-End Egglish is spoken by the people of the Isle of Eggland.
Below are data from this language:

a. kul “omelet” zkulego “my omelet” zkulivo “your omelet”

b. vet “yolk (of egg)” zvetego “my yolk” zvetivo “your yolk”
c. rok “egg” zrokego “my egg” zrokivo “your egg”
d. ver “egg shell” zverego “my egg shell” zverivo “your egg shell”
e. gup “soufflé” zgupego “my soufflé” zgupivo “your soufflé”

i. Isolate the morphemes that indicate possession, first person singular, and second person
(we don’t know whether singular, plural, or both). Indicate whether the affixes are prefixes or
suffixes.
ii. Given that vel means “egg white”, how would a Little-End Egglisher say “my egg white”?
iii. Given that zpeivo means “your hard-boiled egg,” what is the word meaning “hard-boiled
egg”?
iv. If you knew that zvetgogo meant “our egg yolk,” what would be likely to be the morpheme
meaning “our”?
v. If you knew that borokego meant “for my egg,” what would be likely to be the morpheme
bearing the benefactive meaning “for”?
Answers
morphological analysis answers about data from Zulu, Swedish, Cebuano, Dutch, Swahili,
Samoan, Italian, Turkish, Chickasaw and Little-End Egglish languages.

Answers 1 Exercise

A. Consider the following nouns in Zulu and proceed to look for the recurring
forms:

a. What is the morpheme meaning “singular” in Zulu?

um-

b. What is the morpheme meaning “plural” in Zulu?

aba-

c. List the Zulu stems to which the singular and plural morphemes are attached, and give
their meanings.

fazi “married woman

fani “boy”
zali “parent”
fundisi “teacher”
bazi “carver”
limi “farmer”
dlali “player”
fundi “reader”

B. The following Zulu verbs are derived from noun stems by adding a verbal
suffix:

d. Compare these words to the words in section A that are related in meaning, for
example, umfundisi “teacher,” abafundisi “teachers,” fundisa “to teach.” What is the
derivational suffix that specifies the category verb?

-a

e. What is the nominal suffix (i.e., the suffix that forms nouns)?

-i

f. State the morphological noun formation rule in Zulu.

stem word + “-i” = noun

g. What is the stem morpheme meaning “read”?

“fund”

h. What is the stem morpheme meaning “carve”?

“baz”

Answers 2 Exercise

a. What is the Swedish word for the indefinite article a (or an)?

en

b. What are the two forms of the plural morpheme in these data? How can you tell which
plural form applies?

en lampa “a lamp” lampor “lamps”

en soffa “a sofa” soffor “sofas”

en tidning “a newspaper” tidningar “newspapers”

en bil “a car” bilar “cars”
en stol “a chair” stolar “chairs”
en katt “a cat” kattar “cats”

when the stem word ends with the letter “a”, we drop the letter and add -or as in:
lampa => lampor

when the word and with another letter, we just add the suffix -ar as in:
bil + ar = bilar
stol + ar = stolar

c. What are the two forms of the morpheme that make a singular word definite, that is,
correspond to the English article the? How can you tell which form applies?

en lampa “a lamp” lampan “the lamp”

en soffa “a sofa” soffan “the sofa”

en bil “a car” bilen “the car”

en stol “a chair” stolen “the chair”
en katt “a cat” katten “the cat”
So, the morphemes that make a singular word definite are: "-n" and "-en". When the word
ends with a vowel, the suffix -n is added. Therefore, when it end with a consonant the suffix -
en is added.

d. What is the morpheme that makes a plural word definite?

lampor “lamps” lamporna “the lamps”

soffor “sofas” sofforna “the sofa”
tidningar “newspapers” tidningarna “the newspapers”
bilar “cars” bilarna “the cars”
stolar “chairs” stolarna “the chairs”
kattar “cats” kattarna “the cats”

So, the morpheme that makes a plural word definite is: "-na"

e. In what order do the various suffixes occur when there is more than one?

stem + plural suffix + definite suffix

f. If en flicka is “a girl,” what are the forms for “girls,” “the girl,” and “the girls”?

en flicka “a girl”
flickor “girls”
flickan “the girl”
flickorna “the girls”

g. If bussarna is “the buses,” what are the forms for “buses” and “the bus”?

bussarna “the buses”

bussar “buses”
bussna “the bus”

Answers 3 Exercise

a. What is the exact rule for deriving language names from ethnic group names?

sibwano “a Cebuano” sinibwano “the Cebuano language”

bisaja “a Visayan” binisaja “the Visayan language”
tagalog “a Tagalog person” tinagalog “the Tagalog language”

If we compare these three lines, we see that the infix “-in-” is inserted within the first syllable,
exactly, after the onset:
/s/ + /-in-/ + /ibwano/
/b/ + /-in-/ + /isaja/
/t/ + /-in-/ + /agalog/
Note that these three words start with a consonant.
 ilokano “an Ilocano” inilokano “the Ilocano language”
inglis “an Englishman” ininglis “the English language”

Looking at this two examples, we see that the morpheme “-in-“ is added at the beginning of
the word. So, it is not simple to account for it as an infix. It looks like a prefix. Therefore, these
two words start with a vowel, so the first syllable of has (0) onset. We can write:
/0/ + /-in-/ + /ilokano/
/0/ + /-in-/ + /inglis/

As as result, the exact rule is:

onset + “-in-“ + the rest of the root

b. What type of affixation is represented here?

Infixation

c. If suwid meant “a Swede” and italo meant “an Italian,” what would be the words for the
Swedish language and the Italian language?

suwid “a Swede” sinuwid “the Swedish language”

italo “an Italian” initalo “the Italian language”

d. If finuranso meant “the French language” and inunagari meant “the Hungarian language,”
what would be the words for a Frenchman and a Hungarian?

finuranso “the French language” furanso “a Frenchman”

inunagari “the Hungarian language” unagari “a Hungarian”

Answers 4 Exercise

a. State the morphological rule for forming an infinitive in Dutch.

Root Infinitive
wandel wandelen
duw duwen
stofzuig stofzuigen

By reviewing these examples, we see that the infinitive is formed by the process of suffixation
following this rule:
root + suffix “-en”

b. State the morphological rule for forming the Dutch past participle form.

Root Past Participle

wandel gewandeld “walk”
duw geduwd “push”
 stofzuig gestofzuigd “vacuum-clean”

Concerning these examples, the past participle is formed by circumfixing the prefix “ge-“ at
the beginning of the root and the suffix “-d” at the end:
prefix “ge-“ + root + suffix “-d”

Answers 5 Exercise

a. Identify all the morphemes you can detect, and give their meanings.

m- noun prefix attached to singular nouns of Class I

a- prefix attached to verbs when the subject is a singular noun of Class I
wa- noun prefix attached to plural nouns of Class I
ki- noun prefix attached to singular nouns of Class II
vi- noun prefix attached to plural nouns of Class II
wa- prefix attached to verbs when the subject is a plural noun of Class I
ki- prefix attached to verbs when the subject is a singular noun of Class II
vi- prefix attached to verbs when the subject is a plural noun of Class II
na- present continuous tense prefix
me- present perfect tense prefix
ta- future tense prefix
-tu “person”
-su “knife”
-kapu “basket”
-fika “arrive”
-lala “sleep”
-anguka “fall”

b. How is the verb constructed? That is, what kinds of morphemes are strung together and in
what order?
agreement prefix + tense/aspect prefix + Verb

c. How would you say in Swahili:

(1) mtoto anaanguka “The child is falling.”
(2) vikapu vimefika “The baskets have arrived.”
(3) mtu ataanguka “The person will fall.”

Answers 6 Exercise

a. What is the Samoan for:

(1) lalaga “they weave”
(2) savavali “they travel”
(3) pese “he sings”

b. Formulate a general statement (a morphological rule) that states how to form the plural
verb form from the singular verb form.

manao “he wishes” mananao “they wish”

 matua “he is old” matutua “they are old”
malosi “he is strong” malolosi “they are strong”
punou “he bends” punonou “they bend”
atamaki “he is wise” atamamaki “they are wise”
savali “he travels” savavali “they travel”
laga “he weaves” lalaga “they weave”
pese “he sings” pepese “they sing”

As you see above, to form the plural verb form from the singular verb form, the next-to-last
syllable is reduplicated and placed before the last syllable.

Answers 7 Exercise

a. What is the root morpheme meaning “robust”?

robust

b. What is the morpheme meaning “very”?

-issim

c. What is the Italian for:

(1) un vino robusto “a robust wine”
(2) una faccia rossissima “a very red face”
(3) un vino seccissimo “a very dry wine”

Answers 8 Exercise

a. What is the Turkish morpheme meaning “to”?

b. What kind of affixes in Turkish corresponds to English Prepositions (e.g., prefixes, suffixes,
infixes, free morphemes)?

suffixes

c. What would the Turkish word for “from an ocean” be?

denizden

d. How many morphemes are there in the Turkish word denizimde?

deniz + im + de

Answers 9 Exercise
a. What is the root morpheme for the following verbs?
(1) chaaha “to be tall”
(2) hopoba “to be hungry”

b. What is the morpheme meaning:

(1) -tok past tense
(2) sa“I”
(3) chi “you”
(4) Ø “he/she”

c. If the Chickasaw root for “to be old” is sipokni, how would you say:
(1) chisipokni “You are old”
(2) sipoknitok “He was old”
(3) hoosipokni “They are old”

Answers 10 Exercise

i. Isolate the morphemes that indicate possession, first person singular, and second person
(we don’t know whether singular, plural, or both). Indicate whether the affixes are prefixes or
suffixes.

possession: z-
first person singular: -ego
second person: -ivo

ii. Given that vel means “egg white”, how would a Little-End Egglisher say “my egg white”?

zvelego

iii. Given that zpeivo means “your hard-boiled egg,” what is the word meaning “hard-boiled
egg”?

pe

iv. If you knew that zvetgogo meant “our egg yolk,” what would be likely to be the morpheme
meaning “our”?

-gogo

v. If you knew that borokego meant “for my egg,” what would be likely to be the morpheme
bearing the benefactive meaning “for”?

bo-