Handout

]Work through the remaining problems on the handout, creating a position class chart for each data set.

• Begin with a column for the stem, labeled Noun or Verb as appropriate
• Prefix classes are to the left, numbered 1 (closest to the stem) 2 (next closest)...
• Suffix classes are to the right, numbered 1 (closest), 2 (next)...
• In each column, list the affixes that can go there. If possible, put a general label at the top of the column reflecting what kinds of meaning are being conveyed (e.g., "tense," "plural," "subject agreement")
• Make sure you include all morphemes in the data.

We will work through these problems in class next week.

Note: in some cases, the best analysis may have optional position classes. For example, consider the English plural as reflected in hat/hats, frog/frogs. One could analyze this as follows:

Noun stem	1 (number)
hat frog	--s plural .

Note that words do not NEED to have a suffix from column 1 (specifically, if they are singular). In this case, optionality is marked by putting the columnn title in parentheses.

If it were the case that English had a singular suffix as well, and nouns had to have either the singular or the plural suffix, then the title "number" would not be in parentheses, indicating that a suffix from that class MUST BE included.

For example, consider this data from Spanish:

noun stem	1 gender	2 (number)
chic .	-o (masc) -a (fem)	-s (plural) .

In this case, the first suffix class is REQUIRED; the second is optional. (Note that this is one way of reflecting the fact that "chic" in Spanish is a bound morpheme rather than free -- it's always combined with something to form a meaningful word.