Unit 2. English Morphology: Inflectional and Derivational
Morphology
Part 2. Types of words
Activity
2.1
Try to turn the following into an acceptable sentence and discuss your
problems in class:
*
to weapon reported he which used supposedly the them kill was in be his still hand to.
The weapon which he supposedly used to kill them was reported to be still in his
hand.
Activity
2.2
Read this short paragraph and answer the questions below:
Pilon nodded his head in the dark and spoke with a quiet philosophy. ‘It is seldom that
one finds all things at one market –wine, food, love and firewood. We must remember
Torrelli, Pablo, my friend. There is a man to know. We must take him a little present
sometime.’ [John Steinbeck,
Tortilla Flat
1935]
1. How many words are there in this text?
50
2. How many lexemes did you count?
41
3. How many word forms and grammatical words did you find?
Grammatical words: 2 or 48
Word forms: 43
4. Draw up a list with open-class items and another one with closed-class
items.
Open-classe: nodded, head, dark, spoke, quiet, philosophy, is, seldom,
one, finds, things, market, food, love, firewood, must, remember, friend, an,
know, must, take, little, present, sometime.
Closed-class: Pilon, his, in, the, and, with, a, it, that, all, at, we, Torelli,
Pablo, my, there, to, him.
5. Did you experience any particular difficulties in counting words?
Yes, it is a bit tricky when we have to recognise its type.
Activity
2.3
Make a list for some of the meanings of the words:
on, I, or, be, shall
; and
make another list for the words
coin, moon, dark, scandal.
When you have
finished, compare your results with those of another classmate and indicate
