Linguistics Chapter 5 Her Hair Was Unkempt Her Clothing Disshevelled And She Moved Ungainly Way

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Review, Practice, and Explore – Chapter 5 • 43

Review, Practice, and Explore – Chapter 5

5.1 OK, Break It Up!

Divide the following words into morphemes. If there are any you are not sure about—that you be-

lieve could be divided in more than one way—describe what is problematic and/or discuss any other

issues that arise.

treehouses equipment massage

cabinets freakishness communism

shipment turnip nevertheless

gracious begs heated

Are any of these words monomorphemic? Give an example of how one of these words illustrates the

difference between morphemes and syllables.

Answers:

Words can be divided in different ways, depending on students’ knowledge of

etymology, as well as on instructor’s goals and focus.

5.2 Finding Function Words

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. What kind of information is lost

when function words are omitted?

Answers: Function words are in boldface; others are content words.

Bilbo was very rich and very peculiar, and had been the wonder of the Shire for sixty years,

5.3 What’s Missing?

Find an example of a text that omits function words (the classified advertising section of any newspa-

per is a good place to look, and newspaper and magazine headlines provide good examples). Identify

the syntactic category of each content word in your example, and list the function words that are

missing. What effect does the lack of function words have on your understanding of the piece overall?

Answers will vary.

5.4 Free and Bound Morphemes

Divide the following words into morphemes. Which morphemes are affixes? Which morphemes are

free morphemes, and which are bound?

legalize prescription distaste sportsmanship serenity ridden misinformation

Answers:

affixes = -al, -ize, pre-, -ion, dis-, -s, -ship, -ity, -en, mis-, in-

5.5 A Wieldy Task

Analyze the morphology of the following text excerpt, in which the author plays with morphological

rules for comic effect. Using the terminology and concepts discussed in the chapter, explain each ex-

ample of wordplay as explicitly as you can. Do you find any “cranberry” (bound root) morphemes?

It had been a rough day, so when I walked into the party I was very chalant, despite my efforts

to appear gruntled and consolate. I was furling my wieldy umbrella for the coat check when I

saw her standing alone in a corner. She was a descript person, a woman in a state of total ar–

ray. Her hair was kempt, her clothing shevelled, and she moved in a gainly way. I wanted des-

perately to meet her, but I knew I’d have to make bones about it since I was travelling cognito.

Beknownst to me, the hostess, whom I could see both hide and hair of, was very proper, so it

would be skin off my nose if anything bad happened. And even though I had only swerving

loyalty to her, my manners couldn’t be peccable. Only toward and heard-of behavior would

do. (From “How I Met My Wife” by Jack Winter, The New Yorker, July 25, 1994.)

Answers: Missing affixes and words are in parentheses.

It had been a rough day, so when I walked into the party I was very (non)chalant,

despite my efforts to appear (dis)gruntled and (dis)consolate. I was (un)furling my

5.6 Derivational Affixation

See if you can come up with at least two other words for each of the following suffixes. Label the syn-

tactic category of the words or roots to which each suffix attaches, and label the category of the word

created by affixation. (Ignore spelling differences—they don’t affect the outcome.) Here’s an example:

Word root/word + suffix = word

serenity: serene + ity = serenity

adjective + ity = noun

Do the same for the following; find words to which the following affixes are attached, and determine

how affixation changes the syntactic category (the part of speech) of the word:

– ence/-ance (as in avoidance)

– en (as in weaken)

– ify (as in simplify)

– ness (as in senseless)

Answers:

Word root/word + suffix = word

5.7 It’s Greek (or Latin?) to Me!

Recall that many words in English have Greek and Latin roots and affixes and that we use these

parts of words productively to form new words. For example, the prefix neo– ‘new’ can be affixed to

conservative to derive neoconservative. Some words with Latin and Greek affixes are the following:

Latinate suffixes

excite-ment, pens-ive, ecst-atic, appear-ance, peer-age, pleas-ure, leg-al, real-ize, read-able,

seren-ity

A. Using these examples as well as a good dictionary, list at least five words (not on this list) cur-

rently used in English that have Greek or Latin affixes. Choose examples of words that are prob-

ably recent additions to the language (like neoconservative).

Answers will vary.

B. Create five words using Latin and Greek morphemes. Give each word a meaning consistent with

its affix (if you choose neo-, for example, your words would include the meaning ‘new’, as in

neolingologist).

Answers will vary.

Review, Practice, and Explore – Chapter 5 • 49

degradable

de V

grade

Though gradeable is a word and it might appear like –able could attach first, de– does

not productively attach to adjectives: *dehappy, *degreen.

nonbeliever

deploy

ment

Perhaps de– attaches to –ploy, though this is not a very productive process.

Review, Practice, and Explore – Chapter 5 • 51

C. Draw the two word trees that represent the two distinct meanings of the noun phrase toy car

crusher. Label each with an appropriate paraphrase of the meaning.

N – crusher of toy cars

crusher

5.10

Derivation or Inection?

Label the following prefixes and suffixes as derivational or inectional.

autumnal gestation automated faster fastener

freaks decompose skipping noncompliant

5.11

Derivation and Inection in Latin

Does the following data from Latin with rough English translations show that Latin marks case and

number on its nouns? Are these examples of inection or derivation?

vir man vir-i men

vir-i of man vir-orum of men

vir-o to man vis-is to men

52 • PART 2 Answer Key

Answers:

vir man

vir-i men -i = plural

5.12

Mine, Yours, and Thine

Possessive pronouns—mine, yours—vary among dialects of English and have been in ux for hun-

dreds of years. The standard pattern is given in (a).

a. mine ours

yours yours

his/hers/its theirs

Some dialects, especially in Appalachian English and some Southern dialects, have the following

pattern.

b. mine ourn

yourn yourn

hisn/hern/its theirn

Describe the pattern that the pronouns take in this dialect and why. Also consider the archaic form

thine. Where does it fit into the paradigm?

Answers:

Appalachian English and other dialects mark possessive case on pronouns with the suffix

5.13

Masculine, Feminine, Neuter?

Conduct some research on Spanish, Welsh, Arabic, Tuvalu, and Russian, all of which mark

grammatical gender in some ways. Show examples of gender marking in each language, and briey

Review, Practice, and Explore – Chapter 5 • 53

explain how gender is indicated and how it contrasts among the different forms (masculine, femi-

nine, and/or neuter).

Answers will vary.

5.14

Where Have All the Strong Verbs Gone?

The following list of words used to be strong verbs and are now weak verbs. Look them up in the Oxford

English Dictionary or another good etymological dictionary and give the older, strong form of each verb.

Do any of these verbs have different forms in different dialects? Are strong forms maintained?

bow, brew, burn, climb, help, mourn, row, step, walk

Answers: Older strong forms of (now) weak verbs (past participles are used here but

5.15

Been There. Done That.

A. Table 5.5 shows the five forms of an English verb. Using that table as a guide, label the form of

each boldface verb in the following sentences. Another helpful resource is Table 5.6, which lists

the different forms of the verb be.

1. Ferdinand has been eating dandelions.

3. Have you seen the movie?

4. Lee loves chocolate.

6. She hopes to see the movie tomorrow.

8. They have been planning a trip.

10. Ferdinand has been stung by a bee.

54 • PART 2 Answer Key

B. Construct seven sentences that include (at least) one verb in the form specified for each sen-

tence. Label the verb forms.

1. infinitive

3. present participle

5. present tense

7. past tense, present participle

A. Answers:

Ferdinand has been eating dandelions. (present participle)

Bees are buzzing around the owers. (present tense)

Have you seen the movie? (past participle)

5.16

Be in Other Languages

Look up the word for be in at least two languages, and provide the verb’s complete present-tense

conjugation—all the forms of the verb for each person and number. Do these forms follow a regular

pattern, or are they irregular compared to the way that other verbs are conjugated in the language? If

they are irregular, discuss why you think this might be.

Answers will vary.

5.17

Be in Spanish

If you have studied or are a speaker of Spanish, you are aware that there are two forms of the verb

be in Spanish – and if you are not a speaker of Spanish, you can learn about these two verbs now! In

Spanish, a different verb is used to express to be, depending on whether the speaker is addressing a

condition or an essential quality, illustrated, for example, as follows.

Answers will vary.