Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE

Unidad de Educación a Distancia

MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX

Learning activity 2

COMPLETE THE EXERCISES

1.- Give the most appropriate concept of Morpheme? Write one example. 1p
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2.- Divide the following words into morphemes and morphs. 5p
Examples: (i) truth
morphemes: {true} {th}
morphs: tru+th
(ii) barefoot
morphemes: {bare} {foot}
morphs: bare+foot
energetic
pianist
nervous
televise
delete
ALLOMORPHS
First, consider the pairs of singular and plural nouns in (1). 6p
Write 2 more examples of the allomorphs
(1) singular plural
a. [s] book books
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b. [z] paper papers

 Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE
Unidad de Educación a Distancia

MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX

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c. [ɪz] or [əz] niece niece

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Now look at the singular-plural pairs in (2). These examples show more allomorphs of
the plural in English, but they are not predictable: the allomorph of the plural used with
these roots has to be remembered as a list.
One way of describing nouns that have no change in the plural is to say that they take an
empty affix or zero affix. We use the symbol ∅ (the symbol for an empty set in
mathematics) to indicate a morpheme that has no overt form.
(2) singular plural
a. -(r)en child children
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b. internal change mouse mice

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c. no change (-∅) fish fish

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NATURE OF MORPHEMES 4p
2.- Indicate the parts of speech in the following words
Example:
1. underscore
 Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE
Unidad de Educación a Distancia

MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX

{under} is a preposition meaning “below”
{score} is a verb meaning “to mark with lines”
2. hopeless
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3. childish
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4. cowardly
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5. leadership
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The following sentences are divided into morphemes. Write the sentences without the
slashes. 2p
Example:

Yester /day /the/ bak/ er/ ’s/old/ est/ daughter/ ran/ a/ way/ with/ the/ bank/ er/ ’s/
young/ est/ son.
Yesterday the baker ’s oldest daughter ran away with the banker ’s youngest son.

1.- Fred/ find/ s/ the/ old/ elevat/ or/ un/ bear/ able.
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 Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE
Unidad de Educación a Distancia

MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX

2.- The/ manag/ er/ listen/ ed/ im/ patient/ ly/ as/ the/ clerk/ ’s/ claim/ s/ be/ came/
increase/ ing/ ly/ in/ cred/ ible
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IDENTIFYING MORPHEMES
Count the number of morphemes in each word. Underline the bound morphemes. 5p
Example:
0.- unpresentable -- 3 morphemes; un- and –able are bound morphemes.
1. magical
2. secretary
3. racism
4. coworker
5. stapler

Determine the root, stem, base, and affixes (suffix and prefix) for the following words;
what is the category of the word form? 4p
Example:
jump: root, base, stem; verb (also noun)
atheist:
unhappiness:
zoology:
structure:
 Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE
Unidad de Educación a Distancia

MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX

Write five words where there is inflectional morphology. Explain every case.

1.-_____________________________________________
2.- _____________________________________________
3.- _____________________________________________
4.- _____________________________________________
5.- _____________________________________________
Then write five words with derivational morphology.
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2.- _____________________________________________
3.- _____________________________________________
4.- _____________________________________________
5.- _____________________________________________

WORD FORMATION

Give the original words from which these clipped

words were form. 15p
Words Originals
0 Disco
1 Taxi
2 Cab
3 Curio
4 Memo
5 Fred
6 Al
7 Tom
8 Bus
 Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE
Unidad de Educación a Distancia

MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX

9 Van
10 Chute
11 Cute
12 Dorm
13 Flu
14 Prof
15 Ad

Pronounce these acronyms and give their originals.10p

ACRONYMS ORIGINALS
0 RV
1 UNESCO
2 OK
3 OPEC
4 TOEFL
5 IELTS
6 HOU
7 UNICEF
8 FIFA
9 BBC
10 MC

Give the originals of these blends. 10p

BLENDS ORIGINALS
0 Flunk flinch + funk
1 happenstance
2 stagflation
3 simulcast
4 telecast
5 dandle
6 splatter
7 dumbfound
8 medicare
9 Singlish
10 newsboy

Give the blends that result from fusing these words. 5p

0 gasoline +alcohol Gasohol
1 transfer + resistor
2 automobile+omnibus
3 escalade+ elevator
4 blare or blow+ spurt
 Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE
Unidad de Educación a Distancia

MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX

5 smoke+ fog

The words in column 2 have been created from the

corresponding words in column 1. Indicate the word formation
process responsible for the creation of each word in column 2. 10p
COLUMN 1 COLUMN 2 WORD FORMATION PROCESS
0 Automation automate back – formation
1 Humid humidifier
2 love, seat loveseat
3 typographical error typo
4 aerobics, marathon aerobathon
5 Act deactivate
6 Perambulator pram
7 random access RAM
memory
8 Megabyte meg
9 teleprinter exchange telex
10 Information IT
technology