Posted: April 4th, 2015

linguistics

Answer the following 3 questions SEPERATELY.

1. The television show The Simpsons coined many new words by using morphology in novel ways. Two examples are embiggens as in “A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man,” and introubleating as in “One Springfield man is treating his wife to an extra-special Valentine’s Day this year, and introubleating the rest of us”. Can you provide two similar examples from your own experience, other TV shows, readings or publicity? For each of your examples do the following:

(i) Break up the example into its component morphemes.

(ii) Provide the meaning of each morpheme and state whether it is free or bound.

2. In order to answer this question, you are suggested to consult a grammar or a dictionary.

Provide three examples of compounds in English or in your favorite language. Then contribute with at least one example of inflection and one example of derivation in a language other English. Make sure you divide each morpheme and provide a gloss or translation for everybody to understand (total number of examples is five)

3. One very often finds statements about the “absence of grammar” in certain languages. It is also frequent to hear that a particular group of people speak “without grammar” or in an “ungrammatical way.” Taking into account what you have learned about syntax in this module, explain whether such claims have any kind of support or not. Clarify in which sense the word “grammar” is being used inn each case