MORPHOSYNTAX

Linguistics for Everyone:

an introduction.
Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8.
By Denham, Kristin & Lobeck, Anne (2013).
2nd edition
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MORPHOLOGY

EXERCISE 1: Lexical items

Which of the following words may not deserve to be regarded as a lexical item and so
may not need to be listed in a dictionary? Why?

A) break breaking breakable breakage

punish punishing punishable punishment
read reading readable

B) receive receptive receivable reception

perceive perceptive perceivable perception
conceive conceivable conception

C) gregarious gregariousness gregariously

happy happiness happily
high highness highly

(adapted from Carstairs-McCarthy, 2018)

EXERCISE 2: Non-iconic and Onomatopoeic words

Put the words in the box in the correct column; then add three more words in each
column.

fire chirp sheep miaow carrot roar slam pencil

caw chimp

Non-iconic words Onomatopoeic words

_____________________________ __________________________
_____________________________ __________________________
_____________________________ __________________________
_____________________________ __________________________
_____________________________ __________________________
_____________________________ __________________________
_____________________________ __________________________
_____________________________ __________________________

EXERCISE 3: Word tokens, word types and lexical items

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Analyze the following sentences and say the number of word tokens, word types and
lexical items there are in each sentence.

Sentence 1: “After the accident one should look to the future, rather than waste time
wishing the accident had not happened”

Word tokens: __________ Word types: ___________ Lexical items: __________

Sentence 2: “Anticipating a future problema and taking care to avoid it is less

troublesome in the long run than responding to the problema after it has arisen”

Word tokens: __________ Word types: ___________ Lexical items: __________

EXERCISE 4: Morphology Concepts and definitions

Match the concepts with their definition.

____________“Inventory of lexical items, seen as part of a native 1. Onomatopoeia

speaker’s knowledge of his/her language” 2. Word as a type
(Carstairs-McCarthy, 2018:14). 3. Lexical item
____________“Linguistic item whose meaning is unpredictable 4. Etymology
and which therefore needs to be listed in the lexicon 5. Non-iconic
or in dictionaries”. (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2018:14) 6. Lexicon
____________ “Historical origin of a word” 7. Word as a token
(Denham & Lobeck, 2013:144)
____________ “Resemblance between the sound of a word
and what it denotes”, e.g. splash, bang, etc.
(Carstairs-McCarthy, 2018:14)
____________ “…meaningful unit listed as a dictionary entry”.
(Carstairs-McCarthy, 2018:6)
____________ “instance or individual occurrence of a type”
(Carstairs-McCarthy, 2018:14)
____________ “…the form and the meaning of the sign is arbitrary”.
(Denham & Lobeck, 2013:142

EXERCISE 5: Content and Function words

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A) Put the following content words in the correct columns, then add one more word in each
column.

sea, often, intelligence, argue, still, forget, sad, unlucky, hopefully, submission, mad,
crunchy, annoy, hashtag, seem, needle, grope, luckily, connect, now, delightful.

Noun Verb Adjective Adverb

___________________ ____________________ ____________________ _____________________
___________________ ____________________ ____________________ _____________________
___________________ ____________________ ____________________ _____________________
___________________ ____________________ ____________________ _____________________
___________________ ____________________ ____________________ _____________________
___________________ ____________________ ____________________ _____________________

B) Put the following function words in the correct columns, then add two more words in each
column.

without, and, very, those, may, my, quite, should, both, around, but, will, so, behind,
rather, his, all, some.

Determiner Quantifier Preposition Conjunction Degree word Modal

_____________ _____________ ______________ ______________ ______________ ____________
_____________ _____________ ______________ ______________ _____________ ____________
_____________ _____________ ______________ ______________ _____________ ____________

C) Find at least six different function words in the following text excerpt. Label each word’s
syntactic category. Also list and label at least six different content words.

Bilbo was very rich and very peculiar and had been the wonder of the Shire for sixty years,
ever since his remarkable disappearance and unexpected return. The riches he had
brought back from his travels had now become a local legend, and it was popularly
believed, whatever the old folk might say, that the Hill at Bag End was full of tunnels
stuffed with treasure.

Function words: Content words

_____________________________________________ ___________________________________________
_____________________________________________ ___________________________________________
_____________________________________________ ___________________________________________
_____________________________________________ ___________________________________________
_____________________________________________ ___________________________________________

What kind of information is lost when function words are omitted?

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MORPHEMES

EXERCISE 6: Introduction to morphemes

Study the words in box A and answer the questions below.

A
1.What is the connection between all these words? bilingual pronoun
2.What is the base word in each case? rephrase homophone
3.What do we call the extra letters? microphone monolingual
4.What is the meaning of each pre-fix? multilingual preposition
5.Can you think of another word with each pre-fix? interlanguage

1._________________________________________________________________________________________________

2._________________________________________________________________________________________________

3._________________________________________________________________________________________________

4._________________________________________________________________________________________________

5._________________________________________________________________________________________________

EXERCISE 7: Morphemes vs syllables

Look at the following words and decide the number of syllables and the number of
morphemes they contain; then separate the words in morphemes

#syllables Number and separation of morphemes

Happy ____________ ______________________________________________

Tenths ____________ ______________________________________________
Helpfulness ____________ ______________________________________________
Pancakes ____________ ______________________________________________
Unperplexed ____________ ______________________________________________
Poorish ____________ ______________________________________________
UnTrumpian ____________ ______________________________________________
_______________ ____________ ______________________________________________
_______________ ____________ ______________________________________________
_______________ ____________ ______________________________________________
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EXERCISE 8: Monomorphemic words vs polymorphemic words

A) Underline the monomorphemic words and circle de polymorphemic words; then

divide each word into morphemes.

treehouses cabinets shipment gracious equipment freakishness

turnip begging massage communism nevertheless crunchy
delightful heated

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EXERCISE 8: Free morphemes vs bound morphemes

Look at the following words and decide which are free morphemes and which are
bound morphemes; then put them in the corresponding place.

lessen caused beautiful nevertheless consciousness legalize distaste

sportsmanship serenity ridden misinformation desperately shipment

Free morphemes
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Bound morphemes
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EXERCISE 9: Affixes: prefix, suffix, infix

Divide the words into morphemes and classify them into affixes (prefix, suffix, infix).

Morphemes Prefix Suffix Infix

speakers ________________________________ ____________ ____________ ___________
untimely ________________________________ ____________ ____________ ___________
fanflippintastic ________________________________ ____________ ____________ ___________
decorating ________________________________ ____________ ____________ ___________
wholesome ________________________________ ____________ ____________ ___________
tigers ________________________________ ____________ ____________ ___________

EXERCISE 10: derivational affixes & parts of speech

Match the words with the corresponding derivational affixes, then write the new word
and the part of the speech (they become when they are put together. There can be
more than one answer.
New word Part of speech
______________________ ___________________
ness able retire charge ______________________ ___________________
ly dis boyfriend agree ______________________ ___________________
ity semi personal sad ______________________ ___________________
ize un second polite ______________________ ___________________
ment ex predict new ______________________ ___________________
______________________ ___________________
______________________ ___________________
______________________ ___________________
______________________ ___________________
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EXERCISE 11: drawing word trees

Represent the following words with word tree diagrams: girlish, rewrite

EXERCISE 12. Morphology Concepts and definitions

Match the concepts with their definition.

____________“Morpheme that must attach to another morpheme”. 1. Affix

e.g.: affixes: prefix, suffix, infix 2. Morpheme
(Denham & Lobeck, 2013:149). 3. Monomorphemic
____________“Morpheme that is grammatically independent 4. Polymorphemic
but phonologically dependent on another word”. 5. Bound morpheme
e.g.: wanna (want to), coulda(could have), etc. 6. Free morpheme
____________ “More than one morpheme” 7. Root morpheme
(Denham & Lobeck, 2013:144). 8. Clitic
____________ “Bound morpheme, including prefixes, suffixes,
Infixes…” (Denham & Lobeck, 2013:149)
____________ “The smallest meaningful unit of morphological analysis”.
e.g. Happy, less, etc. (Bauer, Lieber & Plag, 2015:14)
____________ “morpheme to which an affix can attach”, e.g. friend, read,
(Denham & Lobeck, 2013:151)
____________ “…a single free morpheme”. e.g. friend, happy, etc.
(Denham & Lobeck, 2013:144)
____________ “Morpheme that can stand alone as a word”. E.g.: happy,
Red, the, etc. (Denham & Lobeck, 2013:149)
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Bilbo was very rich and very peculiar and had been the wonder of the Shire
for sixty years, ever since his remarkable disappearance and unexpected
return. The riches he had brought back from his travels had now become a
local legend, and it was popularly believed, whatever the old folk might say,
that the Hill at Bag End was full of tunnels stuffed with treasure.

Bilbo(noun) was(verb) very(degree word) rich(adjective)

and(conjunction) very(degree word) peculiar(adjective)
and(conjunction) had(auxiliary verb) been(verb) the(determiner)
wonder(noun) of(preposition) the(determiner) Shire(noun)
for(preposition/conjunction) sixty(numeral) years(noun),
ever(adverb) since(preposition/conjunction) his(pronoun)
remarkable(adjective) disappearance(noun) and(conjunction)
unexpected(adjective) return(noun/verb/adjective).
The(determiner) riches(noun) he(pronoun) had(auxiliary verb)
brought(verb) back(preposition) from(preposition) his(pronoun)
travels(noun) had(auxiliary verb) now(adverb) become(verb)
a(determiner) local(adjective) legend(noun), and(conjunction)
it(pronoun) was(auxiliary verb) popularly(adverb) believed(verb),
whatever(determiner) the(determiner) old(adjective) folk(noun)
might(modal) say(verb), that(conjunction/determiner)
the(determiner) Hill(noun) at(preposition) Bag End(noun)
was(verb) full(adjective) of(preposition) tunnels(noun)
stuffed(adjective) with(preposition) treasure(noun).
 SYNTAX

EXERCISE 1: Sentence

Identify the subjects and predicates of the following sentences.

A) No one has ordered my lovely prune-and-spinach fritters.

Subject: ______________________________________________________________________________
Predicate: ____________________________________________________________________________

B) Her memory for names was a constant source of amazement to him.

Subject: ______________________________________________________________________________
Predicate: ___________________________________________________________________________

C) There are too many uninvited guests here.

Subject: ______________________________________________________________________________
Predicate: ___________________________________________________________________________

D) Only two of the sky-diving team brought their parachutes.

Subject: _____________________________________________________________________________
Predicate: __________________________________________________________________________

E) It was Lydia who finally trapped the pig.

Subject: _____________________________________________________________________________
Predicate: ___________________________________________________________________________

F) The fact that you received no birthday Greetings from Mars doesn’t mean it is
uninhabited.
Subject: _____________________________________________________________________________
Predicate: ___________________________________________________________________________

G) That evening, Laura learned the Health and Safety Regulations by heart.
Subject: _____________________________________________________________________________
Predicate: __________________________________________________________________________

(Burton-Roberts, 2016: 38)

EXERCISE 2: Clause

Circle the independent clauses and underline the subordinate ones.

A. Lucinda thinks that ferrets are excellent pets.

B. That ferrets can be smelly doesn’t bother Lucinda.

C. I wonder whether Lucinda likes ferrets.

D. My friend met the woman who likes ferrets

E. I never believed that Lucinda knew that ferrets made good pets.

F. That pigs have wings is a proven fact.

EXERCISE 3: Syntactic categories (parts of speech)

Read the following sentences and write the syntactic category under each word.

1. They exited the auditorium through the back door at the end

of the lecture.

2. Bill and Sue walked out of the house very quickly.

3. The sound might be coming from inside the house.

EXERCISE 4: Syntax questions

Study the words in the sentences in box B and answer the questions.

B
1.What is the correct order of the words? A) Hudson large a is the
2.How do you know what the correct order is? river
3.How many parts of speech do you recognize? B) party men the were for
What are they? late some
4.Can you mention the 13 syntactic categories C) book on is the large desk
modern grammar recognizes in English? the

1._________________________________________________________________________________________________

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2._________________________________________________________________________________________________

3._________________________________________________________________________________________________

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4._________________________________________________________________________________________________

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