Morphology Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The branch of morphology that studies how words vary to express grammatical contrasts such as singular and plural or past and present tense is inflectional morphology.

Derivational morphology forms new words (such as 'happiness' from 'happy'). Item and process and word and paradigm are models for describing morphology, not branches that study the variation of words. Inflection does not change the word class, while derivation often does, which is the practical way to tell the two apart.

Answer: B

A morph that does not directly realise a morpheme is an empty morph. It is a segment that carries no meaning of its own and only fills a place in the word, such as a linking or theme vowel between two parts.

A zero morph is the opposite case, a morpheme realised by no sound at all. An allomorph is a variant form that does realise a morpheme, and 'an empty word' is not the term used for this unit, so it is rejected.

Answer: B

The keyed answer is Morpheme, option B. A word that has an internal structure is made up of smaller meaningful units, and the smallest meaningful unit in grammar is the morpheme, so the keyed option names the units a complex word is built from.

A phoneme (option A) is a sound unit that distinguishes meaning but has no meaning itself. An allophone (option C) is a variant of a phoneme. An allomorph (option D) is a variant form of a morpheme. The stem is loosely phrased, since morpheme names the smaller units, but among the options it is the only one that fits.

Answer: A

The process is derivation, option A. Derivational affixation forms a new word whose meaning differs from the base and often changes the word class, as in happy becoming unhappy or teach becoming teacher.

Suffixation and prefixation (options B and C) only describe where the affix is attached; both can be derivational or inflectional, so neither names the kind of process described. Inflexion (option D) adds grammatical information such as tense or number to the same word and does not create a new word with a distinct meaning, as in walk and walked.

Answer: C

Walkman is a bahuvrihi compound, option C. A bahuvrihi is exocentric: the compound as a whole names something that is not what either part names. A Walkman is a device, not a man who walks, so the head lies outside the compound.

A tatpurusha compound (option A) has the first element qualifying the second as a head, as in a determinative compound such as handbook. A karmadharaya (option B) is a descriptive compound whose parts are in apposition, such as blackboard. A dvandva (option D) joins two equal elements, as in bittersweet or the Hindi compound for mother-father. Walkman fits none of them except the exocentric type.

Answer: B

The expression dhire dhire repeats the whole word, so it is complete reduplication, option (B). It means slowly, in Hindi and Bengali. Partial reduplication, option (A), would repeat only a part of the form. Reduplicated compound, option (C), is a name for compounds with two parts of related form and does not describe an exact repetition. Echo-formation, option (D), repeats a word with a changed first sound, as in the Hindi paani-vaani, and here nothing is changed.

Answer: C

Assertion I is true and Assertion II is false, so option (C) is right. In lexical morphology, irregular inflection and irregular derivation take place at the first stratum, where the rules interact with the phonology; this is Assertion I. Assertion II says that all regular derivation, inflection and compounding take place at the second stratum. In the standard models, compounding and regular inflection are placed at later strata than regular derivation, so the word all makes the statement false. Option (A) accepts II, and options (B) and (D) reject I, which is true.

Answer: D

Morphologists divide morphemes into the types free, bound, zero and portmanteau, so option (D) is right. A free morpheme can stand alone as a word, a bound morpheme must attach to another, a zero morpheme has meaning but no sound, and a portmanteau morpheme carries several meanings in a single form. Option (A) lists parts of a word such as root, stem, prefix and suffix, which are not types of morphemes. Option (B) lists kinds of affix together with the allomorph, which is a variant of a morpheme. Option (C) lists Sanskrit grammatical terms.

Answer: A

Assertion I is true and Assertion II is false, so option (A) is right. Derivational morphemes build new words from existing ones, such as happy to unhappiness, and so they increase the vocabulary of a language. They are added to open classes of words, such as nouns, verbs and adjectives, and not to closed classes such as pronouns and prepositions, so Assertion II is false. Option (B) gives the reverse, option (C) accepts II, and option (D) rejects I, which is true.

Answer: A

The form doesn't is an example of a clitic, option (A). The negative element n't is a reduced form of not that cannot stand alone and leans on the verb before it, so it is a clitic and not a full word. It follows its host, which makes it an enclitic, so it is not a proclitic, option (B), which would come before its host. The terms special clitic, option (C), and complex clitic, option (D), name narrower kinds, and the key takes the general term as the answer.