Chapter 4, Productivity and Creativity Video Solutions, Introducing Morphology

Problem 1

Which of the following derived words with the suffix -ity have lexicalized (non-compositional) meanings. Hint: some have both. Fill in the grid below:
\begin{tabular}{|l|l|l|l|}
\hline & $\begin{array}{l}\text { Compositional? } \\
\text { Yes/No }\end{array}$ & $\begin{array}{l}\text { Compositional } \\
\text { meaning }\end{array}$ & $\begin{array}{l}\text { Non-compositional } \\
\text { meaning }\end{array}$ \\
\hline a. curiasty & & \\
\hline b. solidity & & & \\
\hline c publicity & & & \\
\hline d. sexuality & & \\
\hline e. visbility & & \\
\hline f facility & & \\
\hline
\end{tabular}

Qudsiya Anis

Numerade Educator

05:37

Problem 2

Consider the examples in (a)-(c) below. Each set involves a lexeme formation process that takes nouns as base and produces adjectives. On the basis of these examples, compare the three lexeme formation processes in terms of their transparency. Remember that transparency involves both compositionality of meaning and the phonological stability of the base (i.e., the base is pronounced the same way in isolation and in the derived word):
a. -ish girlish kittenish sheepish loutish babyish
b. $-i c$ cyclic metallic economic totemic organic
c. -al herbal global homicidal glacial clinical

Leah Lampen

Numerade Educator

Problem 3

In this chapter, we have looked exclusively at productivity as it concerns derivational processes. We can, however, also compare the productivity of various types of compounding. English has compounds that consist of two nouns (dog bed, windmill), two adjectives (bittersweet, blue-green), and two verbs (blow dry, stir-fry). Are all three types of compounding equally productive? (Hint: one way to start is by thinking of examples of NN, AA, and VV, and seeing which type gives you the most difficulty.) Give as much evidence as you can for your answer.

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03:42

Problem 4

Look at the words you've collected in your Word Log. How many of them are formed with affixes? Which affixes? How many are formed by compounding, conversion, or blending? What does this tell you about the productivity of various processes in present-day English?

Sid Wan

University of Louisville

Problem 5

The graph in Figure 4.5 shows percentages of first citations in the $O E D$ with the suffixes -dom, -esque, -ship, -let, and -hood. Make some observations on the patterns that you observe in the graph. How good a view of the comparative productivity of these suffixes do you think this chart gives? Take into consideration what we have said in this chapter about basing estimates of productivity on material in a dictionary.
Figure 4.5 Percentages of first citations in the OED of suffixes -dom, -esque, -ship, -let,-hood.

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00:32

Problem 6

Using COHA search for words ending in the suffix -eer (as in charioteer or mountaineer). You'll first need to clean the data, as you did for the exercises in Chapter 3 . Then look for all the -eer words which occur with a frequency of 1 . Check which decade each word appeared in and see if you can make a graph showing how many hapaxes occurred in each decade. (You don't need to do a $P$ calculation - just count items with a frequency of 1 in each decade.) Can you see any trends in the productivity of the suffix -eer?

Subhadeepta Sahoo

Numerade Educator

01:02

Problem 7

Do the same for the prefix mega-. Discuss the trends that you find.

Narayan Hari

Numerade Educator

01:24

Problem 8

Go back to the splinters you found for exercise 13 in Chapter 3 . Try to determine when each one began to give rise to new forms in English. Do you see any trends in the formation of splinters?

Margaret Farmer

Numerade Educator