January 2006

WORD
1. What is a word?
2. Say if the following words are simple or complex. State the number of morphemes of which
the words consist: research, full-flavoured, post-Freudian, decentralize. research: complex, 2;
full-flavoured: complex, 3; post-Freudian: complex, 3; decentralize: complex, 4
3. Divide the words research and full-flavoured into syllables. re.search, full.fla.vour.ed
MORPHEME
1. What is a morpheme? - Morpheme is the smallest language unit which has both sound-form
and meaning. It has these two faces and it represents a correlation between form and meaning.
The morpheme, like all other emic linguistic units, exists in abstracto and what we deal with in
reality is in fact its realization (either as a sound-form or a sequence of graphic symbols) referred
to as a morph or an allomorph (which is a lexically of grammatically conditioned morph variant).
In writing, a morpheme is enclosed in braces, e.g. /s/, /z/, /iz/ are phonetically conditioned
allomorphs of the morpheme {present tense} and also of the morpheme {plural}. Grammatically
conditioned allomorphs - /haus/ and /hauziz/ form the morpheme {house}, determined by the
presence of the grammatical markers of singular or plural. Lexical conditioning means that the
choice of allomorph depends upon a lexeme (move-moved or shoot-shot). Conditioning refers to
the factors which determine which of a number of allomorphs will occur in a particular word-
form and it can be phonetic, grammatical and lexical. There are morphemes which are realised
only by one morph (trousers). Morphemes which are root morphemes do not have grammatical
meaning. Derivational morphemes with the same denotative meaning may differ in connotation
only (positive evaluation, derogatory). Stylistic reference may also be found in morphemes. The
lexical meaning of the affixes is more general than the meaning of the words.
2. Give a definition of allomorph. - The morpheme, like all other emic linguistic units, exists in
abstracto and what we deal with in reality is in fact its realization (either as a sound-form or a
sequence of graphic symbols) referred to as a morph or an allomorph (which is a lexically of
grammatically conditioned morph variant). In writing, a morpheme is enclosed in braces, e.g. /s/,
/z/, /iz/ are phonetically conditioned allomorphs of the morpheme {present tense} and also of
the morpheme {plural}. Grammatically conditioned allomorphs - /haus/ and /hauziz/ form the
morpheme {house}, determined by the presence of the grammatical markers of singular or
plural. Lexical conditioning means that the choice of allomorph depends upon a lexeme (move-
moved or shoot-shot). Conditioning refers to the factors which determine which of a number of
allomorphs will occur in a particular word-form and it can be phonetic, grammatical and lexical.
3. What are the allomorphs of the morpheme {s1} meaning present simple tense? - /s/, /z/, /iz/
are phonetically conditioned allomorphs of the morpheme {present tense}, and its realized as
s in writing.
4. What is a zero morph? Illustrate. - ZERO MORPH refers to the situation when there is no overt
marker of a particular morpheme even though there are parallel situations where there are
overt markers of that particular morpheme, e.g. compare: dog - dogs and sheep -sheep (the
second member of the second pair is not marked for 'plural'); compare also sleep - sleeps and
can - can (the second member of the second pair is not overtly marked for the 'third person
singular of the present tense indicative'); further examples could be: cut, put, shut, cast where
nothing about the shape of the word overtly indicates 'past'. It is worth noting that the
introduction of the zero allomorph into the morphological analysis is controversial (and some
linguists refer to such an allomorph as a 'phantom' allomorph and they suggest caution).
5. According to the distribution criterion, morphemes can be classified as:____. Illustrate.
Suffixes and prefixes. The distribution of any linguistic unit is the sum of contexts in which it can

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 occur, e.g. the morpheme dis- in the paradigm: disagree, disallow, disappear, disapprove, disarm,
disassociate, disconnect, disembark, disentangle, disinfect, disinherit, disintegrate, dislike,
dislodge, disobey, disqualify, disunite is a prefix according to its position in the sequence, i.e. it
precedes (and never follows) the base to which it is added; on the other hand, the morpheme
-es having the grammatical meaning of the plural is always in final position, (i.e it is a suffix
according to its distribution (consider the following paradigm: wrist-watches, benches, churches,
torches, switches, matches, garages, judges, badges, paradoxes, boxes, foxes, factories,
countries, bosses, fezes, marshes)
GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES
1. Name grammatical categories in English.
2. Give a list of inflectional suffixes in English. - . In English there are 9 inflectional morphemes
which mark different grammatical categories: {s1} plural, {s2} third person singular present
simple tense indicative {s3} genitive, {d1} past simple tense, {d2} past participle, {ing1}
present participle, {ing2} gerund, {er} comparative degree, {est} superlative degree. The
number of inflectional suffixes is not equal to the number of grammatical categories and some
suffixes are actually portmanteaus they represent more than one category.
3. What is tense as a grammatical category? - It is the linguistic expression of time relations
indicated in verb forms: thus, one form indicates present time, another form indicates past time,
still another form indicates future time. The present tense is identical with the base of the verb
which means that is morphologically unmarked; however to this base is added the s ending in
the 3rd person singular indicative so that this tense mark is inextricably confused with marks for
person, number and mood. The only par excellence tense marker is the past tense marker. In
regular verbs, this marker, regularly represented as {ed} is realized in writing as d if preceded by
the letter e, or ed in all other cases. The allomorphs of {ed} are /id/ after /t/ and /d/; /d/ after
vowels and voiced consonants; /t/ after voiceless consonants.
4. What do we mean by generic number? - The generic number, the one which refers to the whole
class and equally to each and every member of the class, is expressed by every, any, all.
5. List some gender-marking suffixes. - -ette, -ess, -ina, ine, trix
6. The English verb has 3 moods. Which are they? Indicative, subjunctive, imperative
7. What do we mean by agreement in grammar? - AGREEMENT is the term which' is
superordinate to concord and government. Both concord and government are subsumed under
the term agreement.