Ling 200 Week : Morphology problem set (Finnish)1
Natalie Weber
17 October 2014
1
Sample Kenyang answer
The sounds [k] and [q] are allophones in Kenyang because they have complementary distributions
within a word.
Definition
The sound [q] only occurs at the end of the word following the vowels [a], [O], and [o], as in enoq
‘drum’. The sound [k] never occurs in these environments. That is, [k] can occur in any position
of the word, including word-initially, word-medially, and word-finally. However, when [k] occurs
word-finally, then it always follows the vowels [i], [e], [@], or [u], as in nek ‘rope’. This shows that
[k] and [q] occur in complementary environments.
Evidence
The allophone [q] occurs in a highly restricted set of environments, while the allophone [k] occurs
elsewhere. Therefore, [q] can be analyzed as a positional variant of one phoneme /k/. The phoneme
/k/ is realized as [q] word-finally following a non-high back vowel, and is otherwise realized as [k].
For example, the abstract underlying representation of ‘drum’ is /enok/. Because the final /k/ is
at the end of the word after a non-high back vowel, it is realized as [q], and the word is pronounced
[enoq] ‘rope’.
Analysis
1.1
General format for phonology answers
Definition
• Allophones because they are in complementary distribution
• (or: Phonemes because they contrast meaning)
Evidence
• Description of the distributions, including showing that they are non-overlapping
• Examples, including the word in Kenyang and the English gloss.
Analysis
• Which phoneme are they allophones of? (The “elsewhere” case.)
• Give a rule which accounts for the distributions of each allophone.
• (Later: also give the rule in formal notation)
• (Later: give a couple of derivations showing how the rules apply to underlying forms.)
1 Handouts
and answer keys located at http://blogs.ubc.ca/naweber/
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2
Finnish morphology
2.1
Sound-meaning correspondences
• Morpheme = a sound + meaning pairing
– (This idea dates backs to Saussure, whose “linguistic unit” is made up of a signifier’
(phonological representation) and a signified (the concept the signifier stands for).
• For example, in the Finnish problem, there is one English word that appears in every gloss
and one string of morphemes that appears in every Finnish example. . .
• (As you find morphemes, you might want to draw vertical lines between the morphemes on
the handout to help you see which parts of the word are accounted for.)
• (Very visual learners might want to highlight the morpheme and gloss in the same color, or
draw the same shape around them.)
2.2
Allomorphy
• Are there any morphemes with two variants? (Two phonological forms, but one meaning.)
• Just like allophones of one phoneme, we can describe the distribution of allomorphs of one
morpheme in terms of phonological environment.2
– Distribution of each allomorph? (In what environment does each occur?)
2 Well, there are allomorphs that are not determined by phonological environment, but we won’t be looking at
them in this class. (For instance, the plural of ox is oxen, but the allomorph -en of the plural morpheme only occurs
on this one word! It isn’t phonologically conditioned at all; it’s lexically conditioned.)
2
2.3
Morphological template
• Morphemes often occur in a strict order.
– un-kind-ness, *kind-un-ness, *un-ness-kind, etc.
• What order do the Finnish morphemes occur in?
• Are there particular slots where one of several morphemes might occur?
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Mini-assignment
(1)
Write out the forms in (l) ‘in my houses’ and (p) ‘of (the) houses?’ in interlinear gloss
format. When glossing affix morphemes, use suitable abbreviations for (what you think are)
appropriate grammatical labels. If necessary, provide a key to the abbreviations you use.
(2)
In Finnish, [laulussansa] means ‘in his/her song’ and [laulumme] means ‘our song’. How would
you translate the following four English expressions into Finnish?
a. ‘in our songs?’
b. ‘of (the) songs’
c. ‘songs’
d. ‘our house?’
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