Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum, A STUDENT'S INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH GRAMMAR (Cambridge University Press, 2005)
1. {Ex 1: No model answer called for}
2. Explain carefully why the suffix ⋅ish (as in greenish, sweetish, newish) is not one of the inflectional suffixes of English.
| Ex | Consider instead the suffix ⋅ness (as in stubbornness, wetness, etc.): why is this not an inflectional suffix? |
| A | the role of this suffix is to provide a means of forming new nouns, thus of enlarging the vocabulary. It is not inflectional because nouns in ⋅ness do not differ syntactically from other nouns: there aren't any rules of syntax saying that in such and such a construction a noun must or must not be formed in this way. Take a clause like They criticised his stubbornness: we could replace stubbornness by a simple noun like face or book, or a noun formed by means of some other suffix, such as appearance, and such replacements have no bearing on the syntax. It would merely be a matter of replacing one vocabulary item with another. |
3. Explain why there is consonant doubling in the first member of the following pairs, but not in the second:
| Ex | setting eating |
| A | The first is formed from the lexical base set, and satisfies the conditions given in [7] on
p. 270:
(a) the suffix ⋅ing begins with a vowel sound; (b) the base ends in a single consonant sound represented by a single letter, t; (c) the consonant letter follows a single-letter vowel symbol, e (d) the base is stressed on the only, hence final, syllable There is no doubling in eating because condition (c) is not satisfied: the consonant represented by t follows a vowel represented by the two-letter complex symbol ea. |
4. For each of the following verbs say whether the final e is deleted or retained when the gerund-participle is formed. Relate your answers to the rule of e deletion discussed in §3.2.
| Ex | hate |
| A | The e is deleted. This is a mute e: it doesn't itself represent a sound and is preceded by a consonant, t. The gerund-participle is formed by adding the suffix ⋅ing, which begins with a vowel and except in certain specific cases not relevant to this example triggers deletion of mute e. |
| Ex | see |
| A | The e is retained. The final e here is part of the composite symbol ee which is always retained intact before the suffix ⋅ing. |
5. For each of the following lexical bases give the inflectional form specified below, and show how the treatment of the final y follows the rule of final y replacement.
| Ex | say gerund-participle |
| A | saying The final y of the base is not a single-letter vowel symbol, and hence the rule of final y replacement does not apply. |
| Ex | lady plural |
| A | ladies The y of the base is a single-letter vowel symbol and is replaced by ie before the suffix ⋅s. |
6. Rewrite these examples with all noun phrases changed to their plural counterparts and all present-tense verbs changed to the correct preterite form.
| Ex | That photo is excellent. |
| A | Those photos were excellent. |
7. The following irregular verbs have shape-sharing between the preterite and the past participle. Assign them to one or other of Types a–h in [16] according to the relation between these forms and the lexical base, and note those which also have regular variants of the preterite and past participle.
| Ex | teach |
| A | Type f: preterite and past participle form is taught. |
| Ex | wed |
| A | Type a: preterite and past participle form is wed — but can also be regular wedded. |
8. {Ex 8 is same as 7 so we don't need a model answer.}
9. The following irregular verbs have distinct preterite and past participle forms. Assign them to Types a–h in [18] according to the way these forms are related to the lexical base.
| Ex | see |
| A | Type b: preterite is saw (vowel change), past participle is seen (base + suffix) |
10. {Book gives model answer for Ex 10}
11. {Model answer not appropriate for Ex 11}
12. Discuss the choice between the ⋅es and ⋅s alternants of the plural suffix with the following nouns, after gathering evidence about how they are actually spelled in real texts:
| Ex | cello |
| A | cellos This (like various others of Italian origin such as piano and soprano) is one of those that obligatorily takes the ⋅s alternant even though the o follows a consonant symbol. |
13. Nouns with lexical bases ending in f or fe either have (a) obligatory modification of the base in plural formation; (b) optional modification; or (c) no modification. Give plurals of the following nouns, grouping them into these three types:
| Ex | scarf |
| A | (b) optional modification, with regular scarfs alternating with irregular scarves. |
14. Give plurals of the following nouns, grouping them into three types: (a) those with only foreign plurals; (b) those that have foreign and regular plurals as variants; or (c) those with only regular plurals.
| Ex | antenna |
| A | (b) — has regular antennas and foreign antennae as variants |
| Ex | replica |
| A | (c) — has only the regular plural replicas |
15. Give genitives of the following nouns, grouping them into three types: (a) those with only bare genitives; (b) those that have 's and bare genitives as variants; or (c) those with only 's genitives:
| Ex | headquarters |
| A | (a) — has only the bare genitive headquarters' |
| Ex | Burns |
| A | (b) — has the 's genitive Burns's and the bare genitive Burns' as variants |
16. {No model needed for Ex 16}
17. List all the bases that occur in the following words, bearing in mind that one base can be contained within another.
| Ex | freedom-fighter |
| A | free, freedom, fight, fighter |
18. Discuss the form of the underlined lexical bases in the following examples: identify the morphological operations and the bases and affixes involved in their formation.
| Ex | Watch out that he doesn't knife you in the back. |
| A | Knife here is a verb formed by conversion from the noun knife. |
| Ex | I saw her in the quad. |
| A | Quad is formed by clipping from quadrangle. |