The purpose of this project is to use the Jola noun class system to become familiar with some basic ideas of morphology, such as the following: Morphemes are a pairing of sound and meaning/function, but the two don’t always match up neatly. The meaning/function of a morpheme can be different in different contexts. Morphological processes (e.g. rules) can be general or specific, or somewhere in between. Rules often have exceptions. Some rules or generalizations have a semantic side, others are just morphological. Morphology sometimes interacts with phonology. This project will get you familiar with some of the ways affixes and roots can interact, and get you familiar with the nature of some kinds of morphological categories.
Answer the following questions and do the following tasks based on information from the
“Kujamaat Jóola Noun Classes” section on pages 58-67 of our textbook (Aronoff & Fudeman 2011, hereafter “AF”), and class lectures and activities. Some of the transcriptions on this handout may be different from what would be found in the book because my source used a different transcription system. This project has a total of eight questions/sections.
FORMAT: Type as much as possible. (If you want to write Jola data by hand, that’s okay.) Make your project neat!
Below the chart, include a discussion in which you do the following:
EXAMPLE (with data from the textbook):
Gender 1/2 consists of Class 1 with the prefix a- (singular), and Class 2 with ku- (plural). Its members include the following, in the left-to-right order ‘singular noun’, gloss, ‘plural noun’:
a-sEf (from French) |
‘chief’ |
ku-sEf |
´-ku |
‘thief’ |
ku-ku |
a-jOla |
‘Jola person’ |
ku-jOla |
The prefixes appear in their tense and lax allomorphs, depending on whether there is a tense vowel in the root.
This gender is called the ‘personal’ gender. Its semantic core is humans, and it consists entirely of humans. The words in the table above appear in Gender 1/2 because they designate humans. We might a have expected /a-sEf/ to appear in gender 3/4 since it is a borrowed word, but apparently the semantic criterion of humanness overrides the fact that it is borrowed.
NOTE: This example does not use the data from the project. You still have to include Gender 1/2 in your project.
List of words for you to classify:
/ati/ ‘same-sex sibling’ |
/kuti/ same-sex siblings |
/adokoto:ra/ ‘doctor’ (< French) |
/kudokoto:ra/ ‘doctors’ |
/bubak/ ‘baobab tree’ |
/ubak/ ‘baobab trees’ |
/butum/ ‘mouth’ |
/utum/ ‘mouths’ |
/bu:l/ ‘face’ |
/wu:l/ ‘faces’ |
/bubirik/ ‘acacia tree’ |
/ubirik/ ‘acacia trees’ |
/busiken/ ‘wooden mortar for crushing grain’ |
/usiken/ ‘mortars’ |
/bumanga/ ‘mango tree’ |
/umanga/ ‘mango trees’ |
/bu:l/ ‘nest’ |
/wu:l/ ‘nests’ |
/ebo:l/ ‘bowl’ (< French) |
/sibo:l/ ‘bowls’ |
/e≠aru/ ‘monkey’ |
/si≠aru/ ‘monkeys’ |
/emo:n/ ‘trunk of the body’ |
/simo:n/ ‘trunks (of the body)’ |
/fumo:n/ ‘large tree trunk’ |
kumo:n/ ‘large tree trunks’ |
/fun´…n´/ ‘banana (fruit)’ (< French) |
/kun´…n´/ ‘bananas’ |
/fujamara/ ‘rainy season’ |
/kujamara/ ‘rainy seasons’ |
/fujoj/ ‘assembly (of people)’ |
/kujoj/ ‘assemblies’ |
/fule:muna/ ‘lemon’ (< Portuguese) |
/kule:muna/ ‘lemons’ |
/fal/ ‘large body of water’ |
/kal/ ‘large bodies of water’ |
/kal/ ‘stream’ |
/wal/ ‘streams’ |
/ka≠/ ‘item of clothing’ |
/wa≠/ ‘items of clothing’ |
/ka≠en/ ‘arm and hand’ |
/u≠en/ ‘arms and hands’ |
/kakamun/ ‘leg and foot’ |
/ukamun/ ‘legs and feet’ |
/jiliba/ ‘small knife’ |
/muliba/ ‘small knives’ |
/jirink/ ‘piece’ |
/murink/ ‘pieces’ |
/jisua/ ‘small bird’ |
/musua/ ‘small birds’ |
/jikil/ ‘eye’ |
/kukil/ ‘eyes’ |
/ju:l/ ‘a kind of palm tree’ |
/mu:l/ (plural of the same kind of palm tree) |
/Esua/ ‘bird’ |
/sisua/ ‘birds’ |
/basua/ ‘small group of birds’
/Ebaj/ ‘to have’
/kakontoN/ ‘to eat lunch’
Answer the following additional questions
Urgenthomework helped me with finance homework problems and taught math portion of my course as well. Initially, I used a tutor that taught me math course I felt that as if I was not getting the help I needed. With the help of Urgenthomework, I got precisely where I was weak:
Read More
Follow Us