1. Estimating your vocabulary. Answers to this question will vary depending on student, dictionary, and so on. One example:
a. Count the number of entries on a typical page. They are usually boldfaced.
b. Multiply the number of words per page by the number of pages in the dictionary.
c. Pick four pages in the dictionary at random. Count the number of words on these pages.
d. How many of these words do you know?
e. What percentage of the total words on the four pages do you know?
f. Multiply the words in the dictionary by the percent you arrived at in (e).
2. English morphemes.
3. Identify morphological sequences.
A
B
a. noisy crow
(3) phrase consisting of adjective plus noun
b. scarecrow
(1) compound noun
c. the crow
(6) grammatical morpheme followed by lexical morpheme
d. crowlike
(5) root morpheme plus derivational suffix
e. crows
(4) root morpheme plus inflectional suffix
4. Identify morphological elements.
A
B
a. terrorized
(3) inflectional suffix
b. uncivilized
(1) free root
c. terrorize
(4) derivational suffix
d. lukewarm
(2) bound root
e. impossible
(6) derivational prefix
5. Zulu morphology.
Part One
a. The morpheme meaning “singular” is um-.
b. The morpheme meaning “plural” is aba-.
c.
Zulu
English
–fazi
“married woman”
–fani
“boy”
–zali
“parent”
-fundisi
“teacher”
-bazi
“carver”
-limi
“farmer”
-dlali
“player”
-fundi
“reader”
Part Two
d. The verbal suffix morpheme is –a.
6. Swedish morphology.
a. en
b. –or and –ar. If the basic noun ends in a vowel (or perhaps more specifically an a, we would need more data to differenti-
7. Cebuano morphology.
a. The morpheme –in– is used to derive a language name from the word for a person from a certain country. Insert the mor-
8. Dutch morphology.
9. Swahili morphology.
a. m- prefix attached to singular nouns of Class I
wa– prefix attached to plural nouns of Class I
a- prefix attached to verbs when the subject is a singular noun of Class I
10. Reduplication in Samoan.
Part One
a. (1) “they weave” = lalaga
(2) “they travel” = savavali
Part Two
1. partial reduplication (with some morpho-phonological changes)
6. To form weakened adjectives of this type, reduplicate (copy) the first vowel of the base form and all the consonants before
that vowel, then insert this copy before the first consonant of the base. Schematically, this is:
11. Humorous definitions. Sample answers:
stalemate:
“husband or wife no longer interested”
The definition results from incorrectly interpreting this word as
a compound of stale and mate, where stale means “no longer
fresh” and mate is “a husband or wife.”
effusive:
“able to be merged”
This word appears to be related to the stem fuse, meaning “merge”
and the suffix –ive, meaning “having a tendency, character, or quali–
ty” such as “creative” or “explosive.”
tenet:
“a group of ten singers”
This word has been interpreted as a combination of the number ten
and the suffix –et, such as found in words relating to music, for ex–
ample, quartet and duet.
dermatology:
“a study of derms”
The word ending -ology as in biology, meaning “study of,” has
been recognized, but the definer clearly has no idea what derm
means.
ingenious:
“not very smart”
Here, the bound morpheme –genious has been mistaken for ge-
nius, meaning “very smart” and -interpreted as meaning “not
very smart” when the negative morpheme in– is prefixed.
finesse:
“a female fish”
The word was interpreted as the noun fin “fish -appendage” plus
the suffix -ess(e) “female” as in words such as lioness or ac-
tress.
amphibious:
“able to lie on both sea and land”
Amphibious has been correctly used, but the phib part of it is
humorously interpreted as fib, to tell
a lie.
deceptionist:
“secretary who covers up for his boss”
This is a blend of the words deception and receptionist.
mathemagician:
“Bernie Madoff’s accountant”
A blend of mathematician and magician, implying that the per-
son in question is good at manipulating numbers to create a
false impression.
sexcedrin:
“medicine for mate who says, ‘sorry, I have a headache.’”
A blend of the word sex with the headache medicine Excedrin.
testosteroni:
“hormonal supplement administered as pasta”
A blend of testosterone and any one of the pasta words ending
in -roni such as macaroni.
aesthetominophen:
“medicine to make you look beautiful”
A blend of aesthetics—having to do with beauty—and aceta-
minophen, the analgesic medicine.
histalavista:
“say goodbye to those allergies”
The Spanish expression hasta la vista “see you later” is influ-
enced by the allergy medicines called antihistamines.
aquapella:
“singing in the shower”
The “a ca” of a cappella, “singing without instrumental accom-
paniment,” is taken to be aqua meaning “water.”
melancholy:
“dog that guards the cantaloupe patch”
–choly is pronounced “collie” like the breed of dog that guards
sheep, and melan- is pronounced “melon” of which a canta-
loupe is a type, so a “melon–collie” is a guard dog for a type of
melon.
plutocrat:
“a dog that rules”
-crat is correctly interpreted as dealing with rule or governance,
as in democrat and aristocrat. However, pluto- here has been
misinterpreted as the dog, Pluto, from the Disney cartoons.
12. Structure of English words.
a. construal disappearances
irreplaceability misconceive
indecipherable redarken
b. undarkenable “able to undarkenable “unable to
be less dark” make dark”
13. Asymmetries.
a. Words Nonwords
nondescript *descript
14. Composite words.
a. Star Trek
b. barnstorm
15. Eight-page book report.
16. Italian morphology.
a. The root morpheme meaning “robust” is robust.
17. Turkish morphology.
a. –e
18. Chickasaw morphology.
a. (1) “to be tall” = chaaha
19. Little-End Egglish
a. The possessive morpheme is the prefix z-. The first person singular morpheme is the suffix –ego. The second person mor-
pheme is suffix -ivo.
20. Zoque.
a. -u
b. –pa
21. Research exercise. Answers will vary. A sample answer follows.
Wictionary.com (accessed in June 2009) lists four English interfixes: i, k, n, and o and defines interfix as “a vowel inserted
interconsonantally betwixt morphemes of Latinate origin in order to ease pronunciation.” Note, however, that this defini-
tion doesn’t work for k and n, which are not vowels. These four interfixes have three major functions, all of which seem to
be different from that of the example given in the book. The i and o in Wictionary do seem to be used to ease pronuncia–
