The origins of language 7

Study questions
1 Why is it difficult to agree with Psammetichus that Phrygian must have been
the original human language?
2 What is the basic idea behind the “bow-wow” theory of language origin?
3 Why are interjections such as Ouch considered to be unlikely sources of
human speech sounds?
4 Where is the pharynx and how did it become an important part of human
sound production?
5 Why do you think that young deaf children who become fluent in sign language
would be cited in support of the innateness hypothesis?
6 With which of the six “sources” would you associate this quotation?

Chewing, licking and sucking are extremely widespread mammalian activities,

which, in terms of casual observation, have obvious similarities with speech.
(MacNeilage, 1998)

Tasks
A What is the connection between the Heimlich maneuver and the development
of human speech?
B What exactly happened at Babel and why is it used in explanations of language
origins?
C What are the arguments for and against a teleological explanation of the origins
of human language?
D The idea that “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” was first proposed by
Ernst Haeckel in 1866 and is still frequently used in discussions of
language origins.
Can you find a simpler or less technical way to express this idea?
E In his analysis of the beginnings of human language, William Foley comes to
the conclusion that “language as we understand it was born about 200,000 years
ago” (1997: 73). This is substantially earlier than the dates (between 100,000
and 50,000 years ago) that other scholars have proposed. What kinds of
evidence and arguments are typically presented in order to choose a particular
date “when language was born”?
F What is the connection between the innateness hypothesis, as described in this
chapter, and the idea of a Universal Grammar?
Animals and human language 21

Study questions
1 Why is reflexivity considered to be a special property of human language?
2 What kind of evidence is used to support the idea that language is culturally
transmitted?
3 What is the difference between a communication system with productivity and
one with fixed reference?
4 How did the Gardners try to show that Washoe was not simply repeating signs
made by interacting humans?
5 If Sarah could use a gray plastic shape to convey the meaning of the word
red, which property does her “language” seem to have?
6 What was considered to be the key element in Kanzi’s language learning?

Tasks
A In studies of communication involving animals and humans, there is sometimes
a reference to “the Clever Hans phenomenon.” Who or what was Clever Hans,
why was he/she/it famous and what exactly is the “phenomenon”?
B We recognized a distinction early in the chapter between communicative
and informative signals. How would “body language” be characterized? Also,
what kind of signaling is involved in “distance zones”? What about “eye
contact” and “eyebrow flashes”?
C What is meant by “sound symbolism” and how does it relate to the property
of arbitrariness?
D What was the significance of the name given to the chimpanzee in the
research conducted by the psychologist Herbert Terrace?
E We reviewed studies involving chimpanzees and bonobos learning to
communicate with humans. Can only African apes accomplish this task? Are
there any studies involving the Asian great ape, the orangutan, learning how to
use a human communication system?
F Consider these statements about the symbol-using abilities of chimpanzees in
animal language studies and decide if they are correct or not. What evidence can
be used to argue for or against the accuracy of these statements?
1 They can create combinations of signs that look like the telegraphic speech
produced by young children.
2 They can invent new sign combinations.
3 They can understand structures with complex word order, such as
conditionals (i.e. if X, then Y).
22 The Study of Language

4 They overgeneralize the references of signs, using one sign for many
different things, just as human children do in the early stages.
5 They don’t use signs spontaneously and only produce them in response
to humans.
6 They have complex concepts such as time because they produce sign
combinations such as “time eat.”
7 They use signs to interact with each other, just as three-year-old children
do with speech.
8 They steadily increase the length of their utterances, so that their average
utterance length of 3.0 is equivalent to that of a three-and-a-half-year-old
child.

Discussion topics/projects
I Listed below are six other properties (or “design features”) that are often discussed
when human language is compared to other communication systems.

vocal-auditory channel use (language signals are sent using the vocal organs
and received by the ears)
specialization (language signals do not serve any other type of purpose such
as breathing or feeding)
non-directionality (language signals have no inherent direction and can
be picked up by anyone within hearing, even unseen)
rapid fade (language signals are produced and disappear quickly)
reciprocity (any sender of a language signal can also be a receiver)
prevarication (language signals can be false or used to lie or deceive)

(i) Are these properties found in all forms of human communication via
language?
(ii) Are these special properties of human language or can they be found in
the communication systems of other creatures?

(For background reading, see chapter 17 of O’Grady et al., 2005.)

II The most persistent criticism of the chimpanzee language-learning projects is

that the chimpanzees are simply making responses like trained animals for
rewards and are consequently not using language to express anything. Read
over the following reports and try to decide how the different behaviors of
these chimpanzees (Dar, Washoe and Moja) should be characterized. Signs
are represented by words in capital letters.
The sounds of language 37

Study questions
1 What is the difference between acoustic phonetics and articulatory phonetics?
2 Which of the following words normally end with voiceless (−V) sounds and
which end with voiced sounds (+V) sounds?

(a) bang ____ (d) fizz____ (g) splat ____

(b) crash ____ (e) rap____ (h) thud ____
(c) ding ____ (f) smack ____ (i) wham ____

3 Try to pronounce the initial sounds of the following words and identify the place
of articulation of each one (e.g. bilabial, alveolar, etc.).

(a) calf __________ (e) hand __________ (i) shoulder __________

(b) chin __________ (f) knee __________ (j) stomach __________
(c) foot __________ (g) mouth __________ (k) thigh __________
(d) groin __________ (h) pelvis __________ (l) toe __________

4 Identify the manner of articulation of the initial sounds in the following words
(stop, fricative, etc.).

(a) cheery __________ (d) funny __________ (g) merry __________

(b) crazy __________ (e) jolly __________ (h) silly __________
(c) dizzy __________ (f) loony __________ (i) wimpy __________

5 Which written English words are usually pronounced as they are transcribed here?

(a) baɪk ________ (e) haʊl________ (i) maɪn ________

(b) bɔt ________ (f) hoʊpɪŋ ________ (j) kju ________
(c) ənʤɔɪ ________ (g) hu ________ (k) tʃip ________
(d) feɪs ________ (h) kloʊk ________ (l) ðə ________

6 Using symbols introduced in this chapter, write a basic phonetic transcription

of the most common pronunciation of the following words.

(a) catch __________ (e) noise __________ (i) thought __________

(b) doubt __________ (f) phone __________ (j) tough __________
(c) gem __________ (g) shy __________ (k) would __________
(d) measure__________ (h) these __________ (l) wring __________
38 The Study of Language

Tasks
A The relationship between the spelling and pronunciation of English words is not
always simple. Keeping this in mind, try to provide a basic phonetic
representation of the following words.

although, beauty, bomb, ceiling, charisma, choice, cough, exercise, hour, light,
phase, quiche, quake, sixteen, thigh, tongue, whose, writhe

B Using a dictionary if necessary, try to decide how each of the following words is
usually pronounced. Then, put the words in five lists as illustrations of each of
the sounds [eɪ], [i], [f], [k] and [ʃ]. Some words will be in more than one list.

air, belief, critique, crockery, Danish, gauge, giraffe, headache, keys, meat,
mission, nation, ocean, pear, people, philosopher, queen, receipt, scene, Sikh,
sugar, tough, weight

C We can create a definition for each consonant (e.g. [k]) by using the distinction
between voiced and voiceless plus the terms for place (i.e. velar) and manner of
articulation (i.e. fricative). So we say that [k] is a voiceless velar fricative. Write
similar definitions for the initial sounds in the normal pronunciation of the
following words.

fan, lunch, goal, jail, mist, shop, sun, tall, yellow, zoo

Are there any definitions in which the voiced/voiceless distinction is actually

unnecessary and could be omitted?

D The terms “obstruent” and “sonorant” are sometimes used in descriptions of

how consonants are pronounced. Among the types of consonants already
described (affricates, fricatives, glides, liquids, nasals, stops), which are
obstruents, which are sonorants, and why?
E (i) How would you make a retroflex sound?
(ii) How are retroflex sounds identified in phonetic transcription?
(iii) With which varieties of English are retroflex sounds generally associated?
F What is forensic phonetics?

Discussion topics/projects
I When we concentrate on the articulation of sounds, it’s easy to forget that
people listening to those sounds often have other clues to help them recognize
what we’re saying. In front of a mirror (or enlist a cooperative friend to be the
speaker), say the following pairs of words. As you are doing this, can you
The sounds of language 39

decide which are rounded or unrounded vowels and which are tense or lax
vowels? What clues are you using to help you make your decision?

bet/bought coat/caught feed/food late/let mail/mole neat/knit

(For background reading, see chapter 5 of Ashby and Maidment, 2005.)

II English has a number of expressions such as chit-chat and flip-flop which never
seem to occur in the reverse order (i.e. not chat-chit or flop-flip). Perhaps you
can add examples to the following list of similar expressions.

criss-cross hip-hop riff-raff

dilly-dally knick-knacks see-saw
ding-dong mish-mash sing-song
fiddle-faddle ping-pong tick-tock
flim-flam pitter-patter zig-zag

(i) Can you think of a phonetic description of the regular pattern of sounds in
these expressions?
(ii) What kind of phonetic description might account for these other common
pairings?

fuddy-duddy hocus-pocus namby-pamby

fuzzy-wuzzy hurly-burly razzle-dazzle
hanky-panky lovey-dovey roly-poly
helter-skelter mumbo-jumbo super-duper

(For background reading, see chapter 6 of Pinker, 1994.)

Further reading
Basic treatments
Ladefoged, P. (2006) A Course in Phonetics (5th edition) Thomson
Roach, P. (2001) Phonetics Oxford University Press
More detailed treatments
Ashby, M. and J. Maidment (2005) Introducing Phonetic Science Cambridge University Press
Catford, J. (2002) A Practical Introduction to Phonetics Oxford University Press
On acoustic and auditory phonetics
Johnson, K. (2003) Acoustic and Auditory Phonetics (2nd edition) Blackwell
On phonetic symbols
Pullum, G. and W. Ladusaw (1996) Phonetic Symbol Guide (2nd edition) University of Chicago Press
The sound patterns of language 49

Study questions
1 What is the difference between a phoneme and an allophone?
2 What is an aspirated sound and which of the following words would normally
be pronounced with one: kill, pool, skill, spool, stop, top?
3 Which of the following words would be treated as minimal pairs?

ban, fat, pit, bell, tape, heat, meal, more, pat, tap, pen, chain, vote, bet, far, bun,
goat, heel, sane, tale, vet

4 What is meant by the phonotactics of a language?

5 What is the difference between an open and a closed syllable?
6 Which segments in the pronunciation of the following words are most likely to
be affected by elision?
(i) government (ii) postman (iii) pumpkin (iv) sandwich (v) victory

Tasks
A What are diacritics and which ones were used in this chapter to identify
sounds?
B In the phonology of Hawaiian there are only open syllables. Using this information,
can you work out how English “Merry Christmas” became “Mele Kalikimaka”
for people in Hawai’i? Also, based on this slender evidence, which two English
consonants are probably not phonemes in Hawaiian?
C The word central has a consonant cluster (-ntr-) in the middle and two syllables.
What do you think is the best way to divide the word into two syllables (ce +
ntral, centr + al, cen + tral, cent + ral) and why?
D Individual sounds are described as segments. What are suprasegmentals?
E The English words lesson and little are typically pronounced with syllabic
consonants.
(i) What exactly is a syllabic consonant and how would it appear in a
phonetic transcription?
(ii) Which of these words would most likely be pronounced with a syllabic
consonant: bottle, bottom, button, castle, copper, cotton, paddle, schism,
wooden?
F A general distinction can be made among languages depending on their
basic rhythm, whether they have syllable-timing or stress-timing. How are these
two types of rhythm distinguished and which type characterizes the
pronunciation of English, French and Spanish?
50 The Study of Language

Discussion topics/projects
I We can form negative versions of words such as audible and edible in English
by adding in- to produce inaudible and inedible. How would you describe the
special phonological processes involved in the pronunciation of the negative
versions of the following words?

balance, compatible, complete, decent, glorious, gratitude, legal, literate,

mature, perfect, possible, rational, responsible, sane, tolerant, variable

(For background reading, see chapter 3 (pages 75–78) of Payne, 2006.)

II The use of plural -s in English has three different, but very regular,
phonological alternatives. We add /s/ to words like bat, book, cough and ship.
We add /z/ to words like cab, cave, lad, rag and thing. We add /əz/ to words like
bus, bush, church, judge and maze.
(a) Can you identify the sets of sounds that regularly precede each of these
alternative pronunciations of the plural ending?
(b) What features do each of these sets have in common?

(For background reading, see chapter 2 (pages 55–56) of Jeffries, 2006.)

Bob Belviso translated

One attempt to interpret those very unusual spellings might be as follows:

Once upon a time was three bears; mama bear, papa bear, and baby bear. Live in
the country near the forest. NICE HOUSE. No mortgage. One day papa, mama,
and baby go beach, only they forget to lock the door.
By and by comes Goldilocks. She got nothing to do but make trouble. She
push all the food down the mouth; no leave a crumb. Then she goes upstairs and
sleeps in all the beds.

Further reading
Basic treatments
Davenport, M. and S. Hannahs (2005) Introducing Phonetics and Phonology (2nd edition)
Hodder Arnold
McMahon, A. (2002) An Introduction to English Phonology Edinburgh University Press
More detailed treatments
Odden, D. (2005) Introducing Phonology Cambridge University Press
Roach, P. (2000) English Phonetics and Phonology (3rd edition) Cambridge University Press
Syllables
Duanmu, S. (2008) Syllable Structure Oxford University Press
Word formation 61

Study questions
1 What is the difference between etymology and entomology?
2 Which of the following pairs contains an example of calque? How would you
describe the other(s)?
(a) footobooru (Japanese) – football (English)
(b) tréning (Hungarian) – training (English)
(c) luna de miel (Spanish “moon of honey”) – honeymoon (English)
(d) jardin d’enfants (French “garden of children”) – Kindergarten (German
“children garden”)
3 Can you identify the different word-formation processes involved in producing
each of the underlined words in these sentences?
(a) Don’t you ever worry that you might get AIDS?
(b) Do you have a xerox machine?
(c) That’s really fandamntastic!
(d) Shiel still parties every Saturday night.
(e) These new skateboards from Zee Designs are kickass.
(f) When I’m ill, I want to see a doc, not a vet.
(g) The house next door was burgled when I was babysitting the Smiths’ children.
(h) I like this old sofa – it’s nice and comfy.
4 Identify the prefixes and suffixes used in these words: misfortune, terrorism,
carelessness, disagreement, ineffective, unfaithful, prepackaged, biodegradable,
reincarnation, decentralization
5 In Kamhmu, the word sal means “to put an ornament in the ear.” What would
be the word for “an ear ornament”?
6 More than one process was involved in the creation of the forms underlined
in these sentences. Can you identify the processes involved in each case?
(a) Are you still using that old car-phone?
(b) Can you FedEx the books to me today?
(c) Police have reported an increase in carjackings in recent months.
(d) Welcome, everyone, to karaokenight at Cathy’s Bar and Grill!
(e) Jeeves, could you tell the maid to be sure to hoover the bedroom carpet?
(f) Would you prefer a decaf?

Tasks
A What are “initialisms”? Were there any examples in this chapter?
B Who invented the term “portmanteau words”? How many examples were included
in this chapter?
62 The Study of Language

C Using a dictionary with etymological information, identify which of the

following words are borrowings and from which languages they were
borrowed. Are any of them eponyms?

assassin, clone, cockroach, denim, diesel, horde, kayak, kiosk, nickname, penguin,
robot, shampoo, sherry, slogan, snoop, taboo, tea, tomato, umbrella, voodoo

D There are a lot of new words in English from IT (an acronym for “information
technology”) and the widespread use of the internet (a blend from
“international” and “network”). Using a dictionary if necessary, try to describe
the word-formation processes involved in the creation of the underlined words
in these sentences.
(1) There are some teenage netizens who rarely leave their rooms.
(2) How much RAM do you have?
(3) I can’t get some of the students to keyboard more carefully.
(4) Your friend Jason is such a techie!
(5) Doesn’t every new computer have a webcam now?
(6) You should bookmark that site.
(7) We’re paying too much attention to bloggers.
(8) Subscribers have unlimited downloads.
(9) You should check the faq because the information is usually helpful.
(10) Hey, just heard about the accident, ruok?
E Another type of affix is called a circumfix. Here are some examples from
Indonesian.

(“big”) besar kebesaran (“bigness”)

(“beautiful”) indah keindahan (“beauty”)
(“healthy”) ………... kesehatan (“health”)
(“free”) ………… kebebasan (“freedom”)
(“kind”) baik ……………….. (“kindness”)
(“honest”) jujur ……………….. (“honesty”)

1 Can you provide the missing forms in these examples?

2 What is the circumfix illustrated here?
3 For what type of word-formation process is the circumfix being used here?
4 Given the words tersedia (“available”), sulit (“difficult”), sesuai (“suitable”)
and seimbang (“balanced”), how would you translate “availability,”
“difficulty,” “suitability” and “balance”?
5 Consider the following examples:
ketidakjujuran (“dishonesty”)
Word formation 63

ketidaksenangan (“unhappiness”)
ketidakadilan (“injustice”)
ketidakpuasan (“dissatisfaction”)
What do you think the corresponding Indonesian words would be for
“happy,” “just/fair” and “satisfied”?
F When Hmong speakers (from Laos and Vietnam) settled in the USA, they had
to create some new words for the different objects and experiences they
encountered. Using the following translations (provided by Bruce Downing and
Judy Fuller), can you work out the English equivalents of the Hmong
expressions listed below?

chaw (“place”) kho (“fix”) hlau (“iron”) cai (“right”)

dav (“bird”) muas (“buy”) hniav (“teeth”) daim (“flat”)
hnab (“bag”) nres (“stand”) looj (“cover”) mob (“sickness”)
kev (“way”) ntaus (“hit”) ntoo (“wood”) nqaj (“rail”)
kws (“expert”) tos (“wait”) ntawv (“paper”) tshuaj (“medicine”)
tsheb (“vehicle”) zaum (“sit”) tes (“hand”)
chawkhomob kwshlau
chawnrestsheb kwskhohniav
chawzaumtos kwsntausntawv
davhlau kwsntoo
hnabloojtes kwskhotsheb
kevcai kwstshuaj
kevkhomob tshebnqajhlau
kevnqajhlau daimntawvmuastshuaj

Discussion topics/projects
I When we form compounds in English, how do we know whether to join the
words (hairspray), join them with a hyphen (hair-spray) or leave a space between
them (hair spray)? Using the examples below, and any others that you want to
include in the discussion, try to decide if there are any typical patterns in the way we
form compounds.

backpack, back-pedal, back seat, blackboard, black hole, black-tie affair, bulletin
board, double bed, double-cross, house husband, house-warming, housewife,
life-saving, lifestyle, life insurance, mother-in-law, mother tongue, postcard, Post-
its, post office, workbook, work experience, work-to-rule

(For background reading, see chapter 3 of Denning, Kessler and Leben, 2007.)
64 The Study of Language

II When we derive new words with a suffix such as -able, there seems to be some
type of constraint on what is permitted. The words in the left column below are
“acceptable” (that’s one!), but the forms in the other two columns don’t seem to
be current English words. They are marked with an asterisk * to show that we
think they are “unacceptable” (there’s another one!). From these examples, and
any others that you think might be relevant to the discussion, can you work out
what the rule(s) might be for making new adjectives with the suffix -able?

breakable *carable *dieable

doable *chairable *disappearable
downloadable *diskable *downable
inflatable *hairable *pinkable
movable *housable *runable
understandable *pencilable *sleepable
wearable *quickable *smilable

(For background reading, see File 4.4 of Language Files, 2007.)

Further reading
Basic treatments
Denning, K., B. Kessler and W. Leben (2007) English Vocabulary Elements (2nd edition) Oxford
University Press
Minkova, D. and R. Stockwell (2009) English Words: History and Structure (2nd edition)
Cambridge University Press
More detailed treatments
Adams, V. (2001) Complex Words in English Longman
Plag, I. (2003) Word-formation in English Cambridge University Press
Etymology
Crystal, D. (2003) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (chapters 10–12) (2nd
edition) Cambridge University Press
Googling
Vise, D. and M. Malseed (2005) The Google Story Delacorte Press
Borrowing
Stubbs, M. (2001) Words and Phrases (chapter 8) Blackwell
Compounding
Fabb, N. (1998) “Compounding” In A. Spencer and A. Zwicky (eds.) The Handbook of
Morphology (66–83) Blackwell
Hypocorisms
Allan, K. (1986) Linguistic Meaning Routledge
Conversion
Aitchison, J. (2003) Words in the Mind (part 3) (3rd edition) Blackwell
Morphology 75

Study questions
1 What are the functional morphemes in the following sentence?

When he arrived in the morning, the old man had an umbrella and a large plastic
bag full of books.

2 (a) List the bound morphemes in these words: fearlessly, misleads, previewer,
shortened, unhappier
(b) Which of these words has a bound stem: construct, deceive, introduce,
repeat?
(c) Which of these words contains an allomorph of the morpheme “past tense”:
are, have, must, sitting, waits?
3 What are the inflectional morphemes in these expressions?
(a) Have you eaten yet?
(b) Do you know how long I’ve been waiting?
(c) She’s younger than me and always dresses in the latest style.
(d) We looked through my grandmother’s old photo albums.
4 What are the allomorphs of the morpheme “plural” in this set of English words:
criteria, dogs, oxen, deer, judges, stimuli?
5 What is reduplication?
6 Provide equivalent forms, in the languages listed, for the English translations
shown on the right below.

Ganda omuloŋgo (“twin”) – (“twins”) ____________

Ilocano tawtáwa (“windows”) – (“window”) ____________
Kanuri nəmkəǰi (“sweetness”) – (“sweet”) ____________
Tagalog bili (“buy”) – (“will buy”) ____________
Tagalog kain (“eat”) – (“Eat!”) ____________

Tasks
A What is “suppletion”? Was there an example of an English suppletive form
described in this chapter?
B The selection of appropriate allomorphs is based on three different effects:
lexical conditioning, morphological conditioning or phonological conditioning.
What type of conditioning do you think is involved in the relationship between
the words in each of the following pairs?
1 stitch – stitches
2 exclaim – exclamation
3 child – children
76 The Study of Language

4 conclude – conclusion
5 cliff – cliffs
6 tooth – teeth
C What are enclitics and proclitics? Does English have both? What are some
typical English examples? Why aren’t they just called affixes?
D Using what you learned about Swahili and information provided in the set
of examples below, create appropriate forms as translations of the English
expressions (1–6) that follow.

nitakupenda (“I will love you”) alipita (“She passed by”)

watanilipa (“They will pay me”) uliwapika (“You cooked them”)
tutaondoka (“We will leave”) walimpiga (“They beat him”)

1 (“She loved you”) 4 (“We paid him”)

2 (“I will cook them”) 5 (“She will beat me”)
3 (“You will pass by”) 6 (“They left”)
E These examples are from Samoan, as reported in Yu (2007: 24), and based on
Mosel and Hovdhaugen (1992). (The consonant represented by ʔ is a glottal
stop, as described in Chapter 3.)

Singular Plural
(“love”) alófa alolófa
(“clever”) atamái atamamái
(“work”) galúe galulúe
(“brave”) tóa totóa

(i) What is the morphological process involved here and where exactly does
it take place in the word form?
(ii) What would be the plural of avága (“elope”), má (“ashamed”), maʔalı́li
(“cold”) and toʔúlu (“fall”)?
F Using what you learned about Tagalog, plus information from the set of
examples here, create appropriate forms of these verbs for (1–10) below.

basag (“break”), bili (“buy”), hanap (“look for”), kain (“eat”)

(“Write!”) sumulat (“Call!”) tumawag

(“was written”) sinulat (“was called”) tinawag
(“is writing”) sumusulat (“is calling”) tumatawag
(“is being written”) sinusulat (“is being called”) tinatawag

1 (“Buy!”) 6 (“is eating”)

2 (“was bought”) 7 (“is breaking”)
Morphology 77

3 (“was broken”) 8 (“is being broken”)

4 (“was looked for”) 9 (“is being looked for”)
5 (“is looking for”) 10 (“is being eaten”)

Discussion topics/projects
I In English, plural forms such as mice appear to be treated in a different way from
plurals such as rats. If you tell people that a place is infested with mice or rats, they
will accept the compounds mice-infested and rat-infested, but not *rats-infested.
This would suggest that the forms which have the regular plural affix (-s) follow a
different rule in compounding than irregular plural forms such as mice. Can you
think of a way to state a rule (or sequence of rules) that would accommodate all the
examples given here? (The asterisk * designates an unacceptable form.)

teethmarks the feet-cruncher lice-infested a people-mover

clawmarks the finger-cruncher roach-infested a dog-mover
*clawsmarks *the fingers-cruncher *roaches-infested *a dogs-mover

(For background reading, see chapter 6 of Pinker, 1999.)

II In Turkish, there is some variation in the plural inflection.

Singular Plural
(“man”) adam adamlar (“men”)
(“gun”) ________ toplar (“guns”)
(“lesson”) ders ________ (“lessons”)
(“place”) yer yerler (“places”)
(“road”) _______ yollar (“roads”)
(“lock”) _______ kilitler (“locks”)
(“arrow”) ok ________ (“arrows”)
(“hand”) el ________ (“hands”)
(“arm”) kol ________ (“arms”)
(“bell”) ________ ziller (“bells”)
(“friend”) ________ dostlar (“friends”)
(“apple”) elma ________ (“apples”)

(i) Can you provide the missing forms?

(ii) What are the two plural morphs exemplified here?
(iii) Treat the written forms of a and o as representing back vowels and e and i
as representing front vowels. Using this information, can you state the
conditions under which each of the plural morphs is used?
78 The Study of Language

(iv) On the basis of the following phrases, how would you describe the
Turkish translation equivalents of your and the conditions for their use?

dishin (“your tooth”) topun (“your gun”)

okun (“your arrow”) dersin (“your lesson”)
kushun (“your bird”) kibritlerin (“your matches”)

(v) While English usually marks location with prepositions (in a house or at
a place), Turkish has postpositions (house-in or place-at). After looking
at the following examples, try to identify the three versions of the
“location” suffix and the conditions for their use.

(“book”) kitap kitapta (“in a book”)

(“chair”) koltuk koltukta (“in a chair”)
(“room”) oda odada (“in a room”)
(“restaurant”) lokanta lokantada (“in a restaurant”)
(“house”) ev evde (“in a house”)
(“place”) yer yerlerde (“in places”)
(“hand”) el ellerimde (“in my hands”)
(“road”) yol yollarda (“in roads”)

(vi) When Turkish borrowed (from French) the word randevu, meaning “an
appointment,” how do you think they expressed “in an appointment”?
(For more examples, see Gleason, 1955. For more on Turkish, see Lewis,
2000.)

Further reading
Basic treatments
Coates, R. (1999) Word Structure Routledge
Payne, T. (2006) Exploring Language Structure (chapters 1–3) Cambridge University Press
More detailed treatments
Bauer, L. (2003) Introducing Linguistic Morphology (2nd edition) Edinburgh University Press
Booij, G. (2007) The Grammar of Words: An Introduction to Morphology (2nd edition) Oxford
University Press
Specifically on English morphology
Carstairs-McCarthy, A. (2002) An Introduction to English Morphology Edinburgh University
Press
Morphology exercises
Language Files (2007) (10th edition) Ohio State University Press
Other references
Gleason, H. (1955) Workbook in Descriptive Linguistics Holt
92 The Study of Language

Study questions
1 Identify all the parts of speech used in this sentence (e.g. woman = noun): The
woman kept a large snake in a cage, but it escaped recently.
2 What is the difference between grammatical gender and natural gender?
3 What prescriptive rules for the “proper” use of English are not obeyed in the
following sentences and how would they be “corrected”?
(i) The old theory consistently failed to fully explain all the data.
(ii) I can’t remember the name of the person I gave the book to.
4 What was wrong with the older Latin-influenced definition of English
pronouns?
5 Given these other Gaelic words, translate the following sentences into English.

mor (“big”) beag (“small”) bhuail (“hit”) duine (“man”)

(i) Bhuail an gille beag an cu dubh.

(ii) Chunnaic an cu an duine mor.
6 Create a labeled and bracketed analysis of this sentence: The thief stole a wallet.

Tasks
A Another term used in the description of the parts of speech is “determiner.”
What are determiners? How many examples were included in this chapter?
B In this chapter, we discussed “correction” in grammar. What is hypercorrection?
C What is aspect? How is it used in the description of the underlined forms in
these sentences?
(1) I hope no one calls while I’m eating lunch.
(2) She’s writing a story about her dog.
(3) I’ve eaten lunch already, thanks.
(4) She’s written a story about her cat and the cat next door.
(5) I was eating lunch, so I didn’t answer.
(6) She had written a story about her goldfish before that.
(7) As a child, she used to write stories about the insects in the garden.
D What is the basis of the categorization of English verbs as transitive, intransitive
or ditransitive? Can you use this categorization to explain why these sentences
are ungrammatical?
(1) *I thought I had lost my sunglasses, but Ali found in his car.
(2) *Mark didn’t win, but he didn’t care that.
(3) *They had a problem so we discussed.
(4) *Suzy needed a jacket so I lent mine.
Grammar 93

(5) *We’re always waiting you because you’re late.

(6) *I didn’t have a pen so Anne gave one.
(7) *When it’s your birthday, people bring you.
(8) *She smiled me yesterday when I saw her, so I think she really likes.
E The structural analysis of a basic English sentence (NP + V + NP) is often
described as “Subject Verb Object” or SVO. The basic sentence order in a Gaelic
sentence (V + NP + NP) is described as “Verb Subject Object” or VSO.
(i) After looking at the examples below (based on Inoue, 1979), would
you describe the basic sentence order in these Japanese sentences as SVO
or VSO or something else?
(ii) Given the forms tabemashita (“ate”), ringo (“apple”) and -ni (“in”), how would
you translate these two sentences: Jack ate an apple and John is in school?

(1) Jakku-ga gakkoo-e ikimasu

Jack school to go
(“Jack goes to school”)
(2) Kazuko-ga gakkoo-de eigo-o naratte imasu
Kazuko school at English learn be
(“Kazuko is learning English at school”)
(3) Masuda-ga tegami-o kakimasu
Masuda letter write
(“Masuda writes a letter”)
(4) Jon-ga shinbun-o yomimasu
John newspaper read
(“John reads a newspaper”)

F The sample sentences below are from (i) Latin and (ii) Amuzgo, a language
of Mexico (adapted from Merrifield et al., 2003).
1 Using what you have learned about Latin, carefully translate this sentence:
The doves love the small girl.
2 How would you write A big woman is reading the red book in Amuzgo?
3 In terms of basic sentence order, which of these languages is most similar
to Amuzgo: English, Gaelic, Japanese or Latin ?
(i) Latin
puellae aquilas portant “The girls carry the eagles”
feminae columbas amant “The women love the doves”
puella aquilam salvat “The girl saves the eagle”
femina parvam aquilam liberat “The woman frees the small eagle”
magna aquila parvam columbam “The big eagle fights the small
pugnat dove”
94 The Study of Language

(ii) Amuzgo
macei’na tyocho kwi com “The boy is reading a book”
kwil’a yonom kwi w’aa “The men are building a house”
nnceihnda yusku kwi com we “The woman will buy a red book”
kwil’a yonom ndee meisa “The men are making three tables”
macei’na kwi tyocho com t’ma “A boy is reading the big book”

Discussion topics/projects
I In this chapter, we briefly mentioned the grammatical category of tense and
illustrated the difference between past tense (loved) and present tense (loves).
Using the examples below, and any others that you think are relevant, try to
describe the “future tense” in English.
(1) We may forgive, but we shall never forget.
(2) We’ll leave if you want.
(3) Jenny’s arriving at eight o’clock tonight.
(4) Your plane leaves at noon tomorrow.
(5) They were about to leave when I got there.
(6) We’re going to visit Paris next year.
(7) She said Jim was leaving next Wednesday.
(8) I wish I had a million dollars.
(9) The president is to visit Japan in May.
(10) Water will freeze at zero degrees centigrade.

(For background reading, see the section on “Future” in Hurford, 1994.)

II In the descriptive approach, “ungrammatical” simply means “not well-formed” in

purely structural terms. However, the word “ungrammatical” is also used with a
more general meaning. Which of the following sentences should be considered
“ungrammatical” in your opinion and why?
(1) There’s hundreds of students waiting outside.
(2) Who’s there? It’s me and Lisa.
(3) Ain’t nobody gonna tell me what to do.
(4) You wasn’t here when he come looking for you.
(5) I hate lobsters anymore.
(6) Are y’all coming to see us soon?
(7) That chair’s broke, so you shouldn’t ought to sit on it.
(8) I can’t remember the name of the hotel that we stayed in it.
(9) I never seen anything.
(10) If you’d have come with, we’d have had more fun.

(For background reading, see chapter 7 of Napoli, 2003.)