Seth Cable Field Methods Fall 2010 Ling 404 1 Short Assignment on Inflecting Verbs of Kikuyu Thus far, we’ve developed a theory of the morphology of the Kikuyu verb, whereby it contains the following morphemes. (1) Verbal Morphemes of Kikuyu a. -ire meaning: perfect position: suffix to the root b. -ga meaning: imperfective (past) position suffix to the root c. -a- meaning: past position: prefix to the root d. -ga- meaning: future position: prefix to the root e. -ra- meaning: present imperfective position: prefix to the root f. -ndi!- meaning: first person singular subject (I) position: prefix to the ‘tense prefixes’ (-a-, -ga-, -ra-) g. -u!- meaning: second person singular subject (you) position: prefix to the ‘tense prefixes’ (-a-, -ga-, -ra-) h. -a- meaning: third person singular subject (he/she) position: prefix to the ‘tense prefixes’ (-a-, -ga-, -ra-) i. -tu!- meaning: first person plural subject (we) position: prefix to the ‘tense prefixes’ (-a-, -ga-, -ra-) j. -mu!- meaning: second person plural subject (you all) position: prefix to the ‘tense prefixes’ (-a-, -ga-, -ra-) k. -ma- meaning: third person plural subject (they) position: prefix to the ‘tense prefixes’ (-a-, -ga-, -ra-) l. ni!- meaning: (UNKNOWN) position: prefix to the ‘subject agreement prefixes’Seth Cable Field Methods Fall 2010 Ling 404 2 One way of representing the information in (1) is through a ‘morphological template’ like the following: (2) Morphological Template for Kikuyu Verb ni! - Subject Agreement - Tense Prefix - ROOT - Aspect Suffix ndi! (1sg) a (past) ire (perfective) u! (2sg) ra (pres. imp.) ga (imperfective) a (3sg) ga (future) tu! (1pl) mu! (2pl) ma (3pl) In addition to the morphological inventory posited above, we also put forth the following phonological rules for Kikuyu. These rules take as input an underlying form created by the morphological template in (2), and give as output the surface phonological forms that we’ve seen in class. (3) Two Key Phonological Rules for Kikuyu a. Vowel-to-W Rule V[+round]  /w/ / ___ a ]VERB A rounded vowel becomes a ‘w’ when it precedes an ‘a’ in the verb. b. Vowel-Deletion Rule V[-round]  ∅ / ___ V ]VERB An unrounded vowel deletes when it precedes any vowel in the verb. In class, we saw how the rules in (3) and the morphological inventory in (1) and (2) combine to derive the surface verbal paradigms that Nancy has taught us in class. This assignment will test your understanding of this rule system. We begin by noting the following imperative forms. (4) Two Imperative Forms a. Thoma! Read! b. Ina! Dance!Seth Cable Field Methods Fall 2010 Ling 404 3 (5) Question 1: The Roots Given the imperative forms in (4), what do you think the roots meaning read and dance are in Kikuyu? Why? Explain your reasoning. (6) Question 2: The Inflected Forms For each of the English sentences below, please provide the Kikuyu translation that our grammar in (1)-(3) predicts. Make sure to show your work. Provide the underlying morphological forms, and then show how our phonological rules apply to derive a surface form. a. I am dancing. b. You were reading. c. We danced. d. They will