Linguistics Practice Problems: Exam 1, Psych/Ling 347

I. Phonology

A. Definitions

Provide examples of phones, phonemes, and allophones (in English).

B. Past-tense rule: English

In English, we use three different past-tense markers; phonemically, these are /t/, /d/, and /Id/ (as in crushed, lied and hated, respectively). Examples are provided below.  State a phonological rule (using the 3 articulatory features discussed in class) for this aspect of English.

crushed, heaped, kicked, pitted, deeded, bagged, killed, nabbed, turned, hissed, hanged, hated, branded

C. Plural rule in Language X

Here are some phonetic forms from another language. The words in the first column are singular nouns; those in the second column are the corresponding plurals.

SINGULAR PLURAL

[orat] [emorat]

[laz] [emlaz]

[bole] [embole]

[dus] [endus]

[sar] [ensar]

[kipo] [engkipo]

[gola] [enggola]

[gun] [enggun]

State the phonological rule(s) which can account for the phonetic forms.

II. Morphology

A. Ewe example

uwa ye xa amu "The chief looked at a child."

uwa ye xa ufi "The chief looked at a tree."

uwa xa ina ye "A chief looked at the picture."

amu xa ina "A child looked at a picture."

amu ye vo cle ye "The child wanted the chair."

amu xa ele ye "A child looked at the chair."

ika vo ina ye "A woman wanted the picture."

1. The morpheme meaning "the" is ___ .

2. The morpheme meaning "a" is: (Choose one)

    a. xa b. amu c. ye d. none of these

3. List all the other morphemes occurring in the Ewe sentences above. (Give the Ewe morpheme and the English "gloss.") Specify the type of each morpheme, using the typology described in class.

4. How would you say in Ewe "The woman looked at the tree"?

5. If oge de abo means "A man drank wine," what would the Ewe sentence meaning "A man wanted the wine" be?

B. Morphological Rules

1. Using the "rule" governing morpheme ordering discussed in class, provide the structure of these words:

    a. likeability

    b. productivities

C. Turkish morphology

(see pages 82-83 of your Study of Language text, problem A.

III. Syntax

A. PS Rules for English

Using the PS rules given in class, diagram the phrase structure of each sentence. If the sentence is syntactically ambiguous, i.e., if there are two well-formed syntactic structures that can be assigned to the sentence, provide both. If the sentence contains an "empty element", indicate where it is and what it is "linked" to. 

1. The actor who starred in action films became governor of California.

2. Becky said that Jake played the piano.

3. The officer shot the man with the gun.

4. The fashion model who everyone loved was really very unlikeable.