allomorphy, distribution, constituents

Question 1

order of attachment:
how is morphology ordered?

Answer 1

Hierarchically
- derivation (deriving new word) is not linear sequence of morphemes

example - unlockable
un = prefix
lock = root –> UNLOCK = STEM
able = suffix–> UNLOCKABLE = STEM = WORD

Question 2

allomorphy - allomorphs are?

Answer 2

process of choosing between allomorphs
= variant pronuciations of the same morpheme
choice is conditioned and rule based

Question 3

3 plurals

English plural allomorphy

Answer 3

3 allomorphs of the plural suffix
= phonologically (sound) conditioned
[ez] after[ s, z, f, 3]
[z] after other voiced sounds
[s] after voiceless sounds
horses, dogs, cats

Question 4

Complementary distribution

Answer 4

belong to a single element of the linguistic system, mutually exclusive distributions
- different forms
- same function
- different environment
= in complementary distribution

example - 3 variants of the same morpheme, pluralise nouns in English

Question 5

Contrastive distribution

Answer 5

belong to different elements of the lingustic system
- different forms
- different functions
- same environment

big, bigger, biggest
- different forms
- diff function
- same enviro

thus are different morphological elements, not same allomorphs of the same morpheme

Question 6

2 types of allomorphs

Answer 6

1. phonologically-conditioned
   - choice among allomorphs is predicted by sound pattern
2. lexically-conditioned
   - certain lexmes reqiure certain morpheme category
   - choice of English irregular plural [-en]

Question 7

example - allomorphs of a single morpheme or not?

Answer 7

Hypo- and hyper-
in- and im-

Question 8

Constituents are?

Answer 8

sequences of words within a given sentence that behave as a syntactic unit
example - ‘the very white kitten will avoid the bath’
- ‘the bath’ are syntactically together

Question 9

sentences are made up of?

Answer 9

constituents!
they are sentence-specific!
- can be substitued with other constituents of the same type

Question 10

two constituency tests

Answer 10

1. it-cleft test
2. substitution test

Question 11

It-Cleft test

Answer 11

Its –(tested words)– that/who —(sentence unchanged)—

Question 12

it cleft example

Answer 12

the disappointed chef placed the food into the bin
It was into the bin that the disappointed chef placed the food
- = grammatical, and ‘into the bin’ is a constituent in this sentence
- it was the food into the bin that the disappointed chef placed = not grammarical, not a constituent

Question 13

it cleft - need to cleft the verb phrase

example

Answer 13

placed the food into the bin
its place the food into the bin that the disappointed chef did
- add ‘do’ where verb would be
- strip inflection from verb (placed to place)
- move inflectional value to ‘do’

eg. bloomed - it was bloom that…

Question 14

Substitution test

Answer 14

tests constituency and category of the string of words
- substitute with:
- he, she, it, they, them, those (NP)
- there, here (PP)
- Do so (VP)

Question 15

substitution example

Answer 15

a fluffy rabbit ravenously hunted fresh carrots

• IT ravenously hunted fresh carrots = grammatical
• A fluffy rabbit ravenously did so carrots = ungrammatical

Question 16

substitution/cleft challenges

Answer 16

dont lose meaning of the sentence
- ie. someone painted it
- it was me a tree that someone painted