English Words

EXERCISES
1. Using at least one fresh illustrative example, explain:
66 MASQUERADING ALLOMORPHS

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assimilation
zero suffix
phonological conditioning
grammatical conditioning
underlying representation
lexical conditioning
morphophonemic rule
suppletion
derivation
2. Make a phonemic transcription of the data below which exemplify the regular allomorphs of the past
tense and past participle morphemes: 
strapped
shelled
previewed
accented
bewitched
owned
obeyed
courted
attacked
mesmerised
pursued
alluded
quenched
merged
sighed
doubted
based
scrubbed
wooed
advocated
fished
slogged
paid
seeded
a. Write a morphophonemic rule that states the distribution of the different allomorphs of the past
tense morpheme.
b. Provide a derivation of strapped, shelled, previewed, accented and seeded.
3. Make a phonemic transcription of the following words:
imprudent
insane
incalculable
inexpressive
immigrant
ingressive
inject
impregnate
inlet
impel
induction
incarnate
impractical
innumerable
incapable
inarticulate
involuntary
indirectness
inglorious
inorganic
import
intemperateness
incomparable
inalienable
inbred
indoors
imprison
implant
a. With the help of a good dictionary, state the meaning of each prefix morpheme that you can identify.
b. Using your phonemic transcription, list the prefixes together with their allomorphs.
c. Attempt to write morphophonemic rules that make a very general and thorough statement that
predicts the distribution of the allomorphs of the prefixes that you have recognised. If you encounter
any variation, or any difficulties, comment on them.
4. Study the following words and answer the questions that follow:
alumni
vertebrae
automata
stimuli
larvae
phenomena
loci
algae
criteria
a. All the words above have been imported into English from other languages. With the help of a good
dictionary, find out where they came from.
ENGLISH WORDS 67

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b. Write down the singular form of each noun.
c. Identify the plural suffix in each noun.
d. Determine whether the selection of the appropriate plural allomorph in these words is
phonologically, grammatically or lexically conditioned.
68 MASQUERADING ALLOMORPHS

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Chapter 6
A lexicon with layers