DLAB Morphological Analysis Flashcards

In a language, 'patal' means 'walk,' 'patalis' means 'walked,' and 'patalin' means 'will walk.' What are the tense suffixes for past and future?

Answer: -is for past, -in for future

The root is 'patal' (walk). Adding '-is' creates past tense (patalis = walked) and adding '-in' creates future tense (patalin = will walk). These are regular tense suffixes applied directly to the verb stem.

Given: 'domek' = 'small house,' 'kotek' = 'small cat,' 'dom' = 'house,' 'kot' = 'cat.' What is the diminutive suffix?

Answer: -ek

Comparing 'dom' → 'domek' and 'kot' → 'kotek,' the suffix '-ek' is consistently added to create the diminutive form (small version). This is identical to the Polish diminutive suffix '-ek' which productively creates 'small' versions of nouns.

Study: 'makan' = 'eat,' 'memakan' = 'to eat (active),' 'dimakan' = 'to be eaten (passive).' What are the active and passive prefixes?

Answer: me- for active, di- for passive

The active voice prefix 'me-' (with nasal assimilation producing 'mem-' before 'akan') and passive prefix 'di-' are attached to the root 'makan.' In Malay/Indonesian, 'me-' marks active voice and 'di-' marks passive voice, exactly as shown here.

In this language: 'bira' = 'big,' 'birabira' = 'very big,' 'kela' = 'fast,' 'kelakela' = 'very fast.' What morphological process intensifies adjectives?

Answer: Full reduplication

The entire word is repeated to create the intensified form: 'bira' → 'birabira,' 'kela' → 'kelakela.' This is full reduplication, where the complete word is doubled. This is a productive morphological strategy in Austronesian and many African languages.

Given: 'gul' = 'flower,' 'gul-lar' = 'flowers,' 'ev' = 'house,' 'ev-ler' = 'houses.' The plural suffix changes form. What determines whether it's '-lar' or '-ler'?

Answer: Vowel harmony with the last vowel of the stem

'Gul' has the back vowel 'u,' taking '-lar' (back vowel). 'Ev' has the front vowel 'e,' taking '-ler' (front vowel). This is vowel harmony — suffixes adjust their vowels to match the frontness/backness of the stem's vowels. Turkish uses this exact pattern.

Study: 'write' = 'graf,' 'writer' = 'graf-or,' 'rewrite' = 're-graf,' 'rewriter' = 're-graf-or.' What is the order of prefix and suffix application?

Answer: Prefix first, then suffix

The prefix 're-' (again) attaches first to the verb root 'graf' creating 're-graf' (rewrite), then the agent suffix '-or' is added to create 're-graf-or' (rewriter). The prefix modifies the verb meaning before the suffix changes the word class.