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Learning Words
This exercise will give you a sense of the task that confronts children who learn languages with complex morphology. For each of the following example languages, see if you can figure out how inflectional morphemes are attached to words, and try extending the pattern to new forms.
Example 1: Czech
|
delám |
I do |
|
deláš |
you (singular) do |
|
delá |
he/she/it does |
|
deláme |
we do |
|
deláte |
you (plural) do |
|
delají |
they do |
|
kupuji |
I buy |
|
kupuješ |
you (sing.) buy |
|
kupuje |
he/she/it buys |
|
kupujeme |
we buy |
|
kupujete |
you (pl.) buy |
|
kupují |
they buy |
|
myji |
I wash |
|
myješ |
you (sing.) wash |
|
myje |
he/she/it washes |
|
myjeme |
we wash |
|
myjete |
you (pl.) wash |
|
myjí |
they wash |
|
prosím |
I beg |
|
prosíš |
you (sing.) beg |
|
prosí |
he/she/it begs |
|
prosíme |
we beg |
|
prosíte |
you (pl.) beg |
|
prosí |
they beg |
|
zapomenu |
I forget |
|
zapomeneš |
you (sing.) forget |
|
zapomene |
he/she/it forgets |
|
zapomeneme |
we forget |
|
zapomenete |
you (pl.) forget |
|
zapomenou |
they forget |
|
liješ |
you (sing.) pour |
|
lijete |
you (pl.) pour |
|
lijí |
they pour |
|
rozumíš |
you (sing.) understand |
|
rozumíme |
we understand |
|
rozumí |
they understand |
|
nesu |
I carry |
|
nese |
he/she/it carries |
|
nesete |
you (pl.) carry |
|
dám |
I give |
|
date |
you (pl.) give |
How would you say the following in Czech?
|
I pour |
_______ |
|
we pour |
_______ |
|
I understand |
_______ |
|
they carry |
_______ |
|
they give |
_______ |
Answers
Click here for the answers.
Example 2: Turkish
|
denize |
to an ocean |
|
denizin |
of an ocean |
|
eve |
to a house |
|
evden |
from a house |
|
evdʒɪkden |
from a little house |
|
denizdʒɪkde |
in a little ocean |
|
elde |
in a hand |
|
elim |
my hand |
|
eller |
hands |
|
diʃler |
teeth |
|
diʃimizin |
of our tooth |
|
diʃlerimizin |
of our teeth |
|
edlʒɪke |
to a little hand |
|
denizlerimizde |
in our oceans |
|
evdʒɪklerimizde |
in our little houses |
Give the Turkish morpheme that corresponds to each of the following meanings:
|
ocean |
_______? |
|
house |
_______? |
|
hand |
_______? |
|
tooth |
_______? |
|
little |
_______? |
How would you say “of our little hands” in Turkish?
_______?
Example 3: Swahili
|
atanipenda |
s/he will like me |
|
atakupenda |
s/he will like you |
|
atampenda |
s/he will like him/her |
|
atatupenda |
s/he will like us |
|
atawapenda |
s/he will like them |
|
nitakupenda |
I will like you |
|
nitampenda |
I will like him/her |
|
nitawapenda |
I will like them |
|
utanipenda |
you will like me |
|
utampenda |
you will like him/her |
|
tutampenda |
we will like him/her |
|
watampenda |
they will like him/her |
|
wametulipa |
they have paid us |
|
tulikulipa |
we paid you |
|
atanipiga |
s/he will beat me |
|
atakupiga |
s/he will beat you |
|
atampiga |
s/he will beat him/her |
|
ananipiga |
s/he is beating me |
|
anakupiga |
s/he is beating you |
|
anampiga |
s/he is beating him/her |
|
amekupiga |
s/he has beaten you |
|
amenipiga |
s/he has beaten me |
|
amempiga |
s/he has beaten him/her |
|
alinipiga |
s/he beat me |
|
alikupiga |
s/he beat you |
|
alimpiga |
s/he beat him/her |
|
atakusumbua |
s/he will annoy you |
|
unamsumbua |
you are annoying him/her |
Give the Swahili word for the following English translations:
|
I have beaten them. |
_______? |
|
They are beating me. |
_______? |
|
They have annoyed me. |
_______? |
|
You have beaten us. |
_______? |
|
We beat them. |
_______? |
|
I am paying him/her. |
_______? |
Give the English translation for the following Swahili words:
|
atanilipa |
_______? |
|
walikupenda |
_______? |
|
utawapiga |
_______? |
|
nimemsumbua |
_______? |
Example 4: Tagalog Verbs
Tagalog verbs have different forms, depending on which part of the sentence is emphasized. The verbs below all appear in sentences in which they occur with three nouns, each of which may be focused, or emphasized. For example, if you were to utter the Tagalog equivalent of “The man brings rice to a woman,” you could emphasize “the man” (actor focus; marked AF below), or you could emphasize “rice” (object focus; OF), or you could emphasize “a woman” (directional focus; DF).
For the following verbs, put yourself in the shoes of a child learning the language, and sort out which sounds belong to the verb root, and which sounds are special markers that indicate which noun receives focus or emphasis:
AF OF DF
“accuse of” magbintang ibintang pagbintangan
“base on” magbatay ibatay pagbatayan
“entrust with” magbilin ibilin pagbilinan
Click here to reveal the answer.
But things are not this simple for a child learning Tagalog. In addition to the patterns above, you also get verbs like these:
AF OF DF
“bring to” mag'akyat i'akyat 'akyatan
“give to” magbigay ibigay bigayan
What is the pattern here?
Click here to reveal the answer.
It gets worse. The child is also confronted with examples like these:
AF OF DF
“hand to” mag'abot i'abot 'abutan
“offer to” mag'alok i'alok 'alukin
“scrape from” magkuskos ikuskus kuskasan
“throw at” magpukol ipukol pukulin
What’s happening here?
Click here to reveal the answer.
Wait! There’s more:
AF OF DF
“borrow from” humiram hiramin hiraman
“sing to” umawit awitin awitan
“write to” sumulat isulat sulatan
What are the verb roots for these forms? How are the AF, OF, and DF versions formed?
Click here to reveal the answer.
This exercise vastly underrepresents the difficulty of the task for the child learner. First of all, these examples are not presented to the child in an orderly fashion, as they were here to you. Second, the child doesn’t know ahead of time that the three versions of each verb represent the same verb, nor does the child know what this meaning is. Recall how difficult it was for English speakers to guess the meanings of verbs based on nonlinguistic context alone—and verbs in English are not tagged with the kinds of embellishments you see in Tagalog! Third, no one tells Tagalog-learning children that their language marks verbs differently depending on which of the accompanying nouns is in focus. Not only do the children have to learn which sounds corresponds to the root, they also have to map the various focus morphemes onto their very abstract meanings.
Example 5: Egyptian Arabic
Consider the following verb forms and their meanings. Identify the roots for each of the verbs. How are each of the various forms created? (The symbol ʕ represents a voiced pharyngeal consonant.)
katab “he wrote”
baktib “I write”
iktib “Write!”
kaatib “writer”
maktuub “written”
daras “he studied”
badris “I study”
idris “Study!”
daaris “studier”
madruus “studied”
ʕamal “he did”
baʕmil “I do”
iʕmil “Do!”
ʕaamil “doer”
maʕmuul “done”
na'al “he copied”
ban'il “I copy”
in'il “Copy!”
naa'il “copier”
man'uul “copied”
Click here to reveal the answer.
Some verbs deviate from this pattern slightly. What are the roots for the verbs below, and what is different about how they pattern?
daxal “he entered”
badxul “I enter”
udxul “Enter!”
daaxil “enterer”
madxuul “entered”
sakan “he lived in”
baskun “I live in”
uskun “Live in!”
saakin “person who lives in”
maskuum “lived in”
Click here to reveal the answers.
The verbs “to sew” and “to carve” follow this second pattern, rather than the pattern shown by the first set of verbs.
To say “he carved,” you would say: na'ash
To say “he sewed,” you would say: nashar
How would you produce all the other forms of these verbs?
Click here to reveal the answers.
Sources
Examples 2 and 3 are adapted from Turkish and Swahili exercises in Language Files, published by The Ohio State University Department of Linguistics: https://linguistics.osu.edu/research/pubs/lang-files
You can listen to spoken versions of the examples here:
Turkish: http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/publications/files/lf11/lf11_sounds/Turkish.wav
Swahili: http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/publications/files/lf11/lf11_sounds/Swahili.wav (Note that there are discrepancies between the written and spoken versions of [t] and [u].)
Examples 4 and 5 are adapted from Fromkin, V. A., Ed. (2000). Linguistics: An Introduction to Linguistic Theory. Blackwell. Pages 59-60, 80, 88.