Worksheet 2 – Linguistics Eng B
Morphology
1. What are the functional morphemes in the following sentence?
When he arrived, the old man had an umbrella and a large plastic bag full of books.
2. What are the lexical morphemes in the sentence?
Haitians are used at the best of times to queuing for things; waiting is, after all, the first cousin
of poverty. But in the nine days since the earthquake struck, they have become experts. (from
The Guardian, Jan. 21, 2010)
3. List the bound morphemes in these words: fearlessly, misleads, previewer, shortened,
unhappier.
4. What are the inflectional morphemes in these expressions?
a. It's raining
b. the cow jumped over the moon
c. the newest style
d. the singer's new songs
5. What are the allomorphs of 'plural' in this set of English words?
a. ballons
b. syllabi
c. phenomena
d. women
e. churches
f. children
6. What are the allomorphs of 'past tense’ in this set of English verbs?
a. jumped
b. tied
c. ran
d. became
e. put
7. Divide the following words into their constituent morphemes. Identify the morphemes, i.e.,
whether they are free or bound. If free, are they lexical or functional? If bound, are they
inflectional or derivational?
in
enter
goodness
fearlessness
democratic
displacement
the
largest
representatives
hopefully
appearance
schools
unresponsive
reproducing
respected
psychology
campfires
singers
unhappy
deregulated
telegram
geography
extramural
ex-models
Grammar
Constituent analysis
In sentence analysis, you analyze linguistic units as components of larger constructions such as phrases,
clauses, and sentences. It divides sentences into the immediate constituents that make them up. You
are familiar with this from the grammar course in English A. When you make a constituent analysis (see
Yule, 2010: 88), you analyze linguistic units as components of larger constructions, such as phrases,
clauses, and sentences. To identify the immediate constituents of a sentence, you divide it like in the
examples below:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
Charlotte Kalla is skiing.
Charlotte Kalla is skiing. [immediate constituents of (i)]
Charlotte Kalla is skiing. [immediate constituents of (ii)]
She
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
skis.
The man was drinking.
The man was drinking. [immediate constituents of (iv)]
The man was drinking. [immediate constituents of (v)]
He
drank.
The immediate constituents (ICs) refer to the divisions made at each level. In the levels identified as (iii)
and (vi) above, the ICs cannot be divided up any more, which means that they are irreducible.
8.
In doing an IC analysis of the sentence People have had a tough time, the first line division
should be drawn between… which words?
9. In doing an IC analysis of the noun phrase a new circus, the first line division should be drawn
between… which words?
10. In doing an IC analysis of the sentence Xerox machines with paper jam problems are so
completely worthless, the first line division should be drawn between… which words? (At the
next level, where would you draw the line(s)?)
11. In doing an IC analysis of the sentence Jennifer believed that Rose knew that Tommy helped Rita,
the first line division should be drawn between… which words?
12. Make sure you know what nouns, articles, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, pronouns,
and conjunctions are!
13. What is the difference between the active and passive voice?
14. What is the difference between grammatical and natural gender?
15. What is the difference between a prescriptive and descriptive approach to grammar?