Dividir palabras en morfemas

[Caramelita]

Hola!

Ayúdenme por favor dividir estas palabras en morfemas (no en sílabas).

Así es como lo haría yo, por favor, díganme si es correcto o no


1. Solamente

sol-a-mente


2. Muchachitos

Much-achit-o-s

3. Trabajaremos

trabaj-a-re-mos

4. escribieron

escrib-ie-ron

5. varias
vari-a-s

6. casitas

cas-it-a-s

7. cartas

cart-a-s

8. Algunas

algun-a-s

9. Mañanas

mañan-a-s

10. conversamos

convers-a-mos

11. Interesantes

interes-ante-s


(No sé si está bien dar tantos ejemplos en un post, pero si no lo es, lo siento antemano y díganme por favor cuántas palabras puedo escribir para que sepa la próxima vez)

[wrholt]

I've marked only places where I think that there's an argument to be made for a different division. That doesn't make me right, of course.

Do you know that the test you are preparing for will have questions of this nature? And do you know anything about the preferred patterns of morphological analysis are for that test?

Originally Posted by Caramelita

Hola!

Ayúdenme por favor dividir estas palabras en morfemas (no en sílabas).

Así es como lo haría yo, por favor, díganme si es correcto o no


1. Solamente

sol-a-mente


2. Muchachitos

Much-achit-o-s Muchach-ito-s OR Muchach-it-o-s (The diminutive suffix is either one gendered morpheme -ito-, or it is a diminutive morpheme -it- plus an obligatory gender morpheme -o-. Similarly, "muchacho" is either a single morpheme that has the property of having masculine gender, or it is is two morphemes "muchach-[gender=masculine=render_as"o"]". However, arguing for a [gender] morpheme causes other complications, as many nouns would render the [gender] morpheme as "" (empty/null), and what does one make of a word such as "mano", which is feminine but ends in 'o', or the many nouns that end in 'a' (artista, dentista) regardless of gender?

3. Trabajaremos

trabaj-a-re-mos Trabaj-a-r-emos (I see it as stem='trabaj-', infintive_theme_vowel='-a-', infinitive_suffix='-r-', future_tense_ending='-emos'. Breaking down the future tense ending into 2 morphemes makes little sense as all verbs share a single set of future-tense endings.)

4. escribieron

escrib-ie-ron

5. varias
vari-a-s I think one can make an argument for 'varia-s' for the same reason that one can make an argument for 'muchacho-s'.

6. casitas

cas-it-a-s Or cas-ita-s, by the same arguments as muchach-ito-s.

7. cartas

cart-a-s carta-s, as a final -a is not an automatic indicator of feminine gender

8. Algunas

algun-a-s Or alguna-s,

9. Mañanas

mañan-a-s Mañana-s, there is no mañano.

10. conversamos

convers-a-mos

11. Interesantes

interes-ante-s


(No sé si está bien dar tantos ejemplos en un post, pero si no lo es, lo siento antemano y díganme por favor cuántas palabras puedo escribir para que sepa la próxima vez)

[Caramelita]

Originally Posted by wrholt

I've marked only places where I think that there's an argument to be made for a different division. That doesn't make me right, of course.

Do you know that the test you are preparing for will have questions of this nature? And do you know anything about the preferred patterns of morphological analysis are for that test?

Hey. Yes, I am doing all these exercises from the previous exams and 95% of the time they ask to divide words into morphemes. Now it doen't say specifically what are the preferrred patterns of the analysis, they just simply state: " Divide the following words into morphemes using the sign (-)". That's all But I guess it is pretty straightforward.

Concerning Muchachitos, I was thinking that perhaps its possible to say also "Muchachitas" thats why I left out the "o" as the gender morpheme. Hmm.. do you think that by analyzing it that way I would get 0 points? Its just so unclear sometimes since there are so many words you could say in a feminine gender too.. (muchachitas).


Varias- I thought it's also possible to say "varios" , same thing here with the "a" gender morpheme.

Algunas- Same thing : algunos

Mañanas- I read somewhere that there is also "mañanita", though Im not sure if such word really exists, so I thought the lexema would be mañan-


There was also one exercise to find in which of the following words there is a prefix.

The way I did it is :

entrenter : entre-tener
entregar- no prefix
enamorarse : en-amorarse
enemigo - no prefix

Do you think its correct?


Another word I forgot to mention above is : viejas I did it that way : viej-a-s (again concidering there can be also viejos). Do you have any tip when should I divide them according to gender?

Also, in the trabaj-a-r-emos case, would it be correct to divide such similar word like that too? : hablabamos -
habl-a-ba-mos or hablaremos ... habl-a-r-emos ?


Otra palabra era : verdaderos, and I know the correct answer for it (there was an answer for this specific word in one of the exams) : verdad-er-o-s ... Do you think its correct?

[wrholt]

Do you your previous exams include answers to assess how well you might do? Of course, if some of the questions may appear on future exams the answers might not be published.

I can't may be able to give you reliable advice regarding whether you should divide noun or adjective pairs such as 'muchacho'/'muchacha' and 'vario'/'varia' as one morpheme or as two morphemes 'muchach-o'/'muchach-a' and 'vari-o'/'vari-a'; I don't know what the prevailing opinion is for this question with regard to Spanish. It looks like a test example suggests the better answer: see comments at the end.

Originally Posted by Caramelita

Hey. Yes, I am doing all these exercises from the previous exams and 95% of the time they ask to divide words into morphemes. Now it doen't say specifically what are the preferrred patterns of the analysis, they just simply state: " Divide the following words into morphemes using the sign (-)". That's all But I guess it is pretty straightforward.

Concerning Muchachitos, I was thinking that perhaps its possible to say also "Muchachitas" thats why I left out the "o" as the gender morpheme. Hmm.. do you think that by analyzing it that way I would get 0 points? Its just so unclear sometimes since there are so many words you could say in a feminine gender too.. (muchachitas).


Varias- I thought it's also possible to say "varios" , same thing here with the "a" gender morpheme.

Algunas- Same thing : algunos

I can't can give you reliable advice regarding whether you should divide noun or adjective pairs such as 'muchacho'/'muchacha' and 'vario'/'varia' as one morpheme or as two morphemes 'muchach-o'/'muchach-a' and 'vari-o'/'vari-a'; I don't know what the prevailing opinion is for this question with regard to Spanish. It looks like a test example suggests the better answer: see comments at the end.

Originally Posted by Caramelita

Mañanas- I read somewhere that there is also "mañanita", though Im not sure if such word really exists, so I thought the lexema would be mañan-

It's true that 'mañana' is a feminine noun, but it is impossible to inflect 'mañana' for gender to produce '*mañano' = the same meaning except for having male biological sex. If there is no inflection, how can there be a gender morpheme for this word? For this reason I would argue that 'mañana' is one morpheme and that 'mañanas' is 2 morphemes 'mañana-s'. However, it's possible that for your test the better answer is to suppose a gender morpheme and divide them as mañan-a and mañan-a-s.

The word 'mañanitas' does exist, and for that word I would think that one could divide it as either 'mañan-ita-s' or as 'mañan-it-a-s', but I cannot give your reliable advice regarding which of these two is the correct one for your test. It looks like a test example suggests the better answer: see comments at the end.

Originally Posted by Caramelita

There was also one exercise to find in which of the following words there is a prefix.

The way I did it is :

entrenter : entre-tener
entregar- no prefix
enamorarse : en-amorarse
enemigo - no prefix

Do you think its correct?

Yes. You could also see the same type of question for suffixes, I suppose:

atención : aten-ción
fotografía: foto-grafía (or perhaps foto-graf-ía)

Originally Posted by Caramelita

Another word I forgot to mention above is : viejas I did it that way : viej-a-s (again concidering there can be also viejos). Do you have any tip when should I divide them according to gender?

I covered adjectives such as 'viejo'/'vieja' earlier, and no, I can't yes, I may be able to give you reliable advice regarding which way is better. It looks like a test example suggests the better answer: see comments at the end.

Originally Posted by Caramelita

Also, in the trabaj-a-r-emos case, would it be correct to divide such similar word like that too? : hablabamos -
habl-a-ba-mos or hablaremos ... habl-a-r-emos ?

I don't know whether there is more than one school of thought regarding dividing verb forms into morphemes (or into component parts). The system that I am most familiar with is described in The Grammatical Structures of English and Spanish (Robert P. Stockwell, J. Donald Bowen, and John W. Martin), copyright 1965, published by University of Chicago Press. I pulled out my copy in order to write this message: I had not pulled it out before I wrote my previous message in this thread.

Their chapter on verb forms claims that verb forms can be separated into 4 constituent components:

1. stem
2. theme vowel (sometimes empty/null)
3. tense/aspect marker (sometimes empty/null)
4. person/number marker (not present in non-finite verb forms, always empty/null for 1p-singular and 3p-singular)

The combination of components 2 and 3 determine the tense/aspect/mood of the verb form.

They offer complete paradigms of 3 regular verbs: hablar, comer, and vivir.

Your division of 'hablabamos' as 'habl-a-ba-mos' and of 'hablaremos' as 'habl-a-re-mos' matches their chart. They give their chart in phonetic transcription. I'll put some examples in standard spelling here: I'm not going to take the time to type in the entire chart.

present indicative: (tense/aspect marker is null/empty)
habl-o, com-o, viv-o
habl-a-s, com-e-s, viv-e-s
habl-a, com-e, viv-e
habl-a-mos, com-e-mos, viv-i-mos
habl-á-is, com-é-is, viv-ís (-ir verbs have no theme here)
habl-a-n, com-e-n, viv-e-n

present subjunctive (tense/aspect marker is null/empty)
habl-e, com-a, viv-a
habl-e-s, com-a-s, viv-a-s
habl-e, com-a, viv-a
habl-e-mos, com-a-mos, viv-a-mos
habl-é-is, com-á-is, viv-á-is
habl-e-n, com-e-n, viv-e-n

Imperfect indicative (tense/aspect marker is either -ba- or -a-, depending on the choice of theme vowel)
habl-a-ba, com-i-a, viv-i-a
habl-a-ba-s, com-i-a-s, viv-i-a-s
...

Imperative (positive, 2nd person only)
habl-a, com-e, viv-e
habl-a-d, com-e-d, viv-i-d

Future indicative:
habl-a-ré, com-e-ré, viv-i-ré
habl-a-rá-s, com-e-rá-s, viv-i-rá-s
...

Conditional indicative
habl-a-ría, com-e-ría, viv-i-ría
habl-a-ría-s, com-e-ría-s, viv-i-ría-s
...

Preterite indicative (singular forms have no 4th component)
habl-é, com-í, viv-í [components 1 and 3 only]
habl-a-ste, com-i-ste, viv-i-ste
habl-ó, com-i-ó, viv-i-ó [-ar verbs have no 2nd component]
habl-a-mos, com-i-mos, viv-i-mos [no 3rd component]
habl-a-ste-is, com-i-ste-is, viv-i-ste-is
habl-a-ro-n, com-ie-ro-n, viv-ie-ro-n

Past subjunctive, -ra: (theme ALWAYS has tonic accent)
habl-á-ra, com-ié-ra, viv-ié-ra
habl-á-ra-s, com-ié-ra-s, viv-ié-ra-s
...

Past subjunctive, -se: (theme ALWAYS has tonic accent)
habl-á-se, com-ié-se, viv-ié-se
habl-á-se-s, com-ié-se-s, viv-ié-se-s
...

Infinitive: (theme ALWAYS has tonic accent)
habl-á-r, com-é-r, viv-í-r

Perfective participle: (theme ALWAYS has tonic accent)
habl-á-do, com-í-do, viv-í-do

Imperfective participle: (theme ALWAYS has tonic accent)
habl-á-ndo, com-ié-ndo, viv-ié-ndo

Originally Posted by Caramelita

Otra palabra era : verdaderos, and I know the correct answer for it (there was an answer for this specific word in one of the exams) : verdad-er-o-s ... Do you think its correct?

Yes: stem = verdad-, adjective-making suffix -er-, gender suffix -o (!), plural suffix -s.

We have evidence!

This example suggests that my earlier comments about not being able to give you reliable advice are not exactly true, at least with regard to words such as muchach-it-o-s.

This evidence also suggests that you should might want to divide noun pairs such as amigo/amiga as amig-o/amig-a and adjective pairs such as viejo/vieja as viej-o/viej-a. However, the book I cited earlier also has a section on the morphology of nouns, and they categorically state that nouns do not inflect for gender; they state that word pairs such as 'amigo'/'amiga' are two semantically-related but nevertheless distinct words that have grammatical gender as a property. On the other hand, the same chapter states that adjectives do inflect for both gender and number.

So, if you follow the morphological analysis that these authors advocate, you would treat the noun 'amigo' as one morpheme, but you would treat the adjective 'viejo' as two morphemes 'viej-o'.

[Caramelita]

It's just that I have been dividing the words according to few websites I've found. In one of them it says: "Morfemas son las letras que van pospuestas al lexema. Indican los accidentes del vocablo. Estos accidentes son: género, número, tiempo y persona".

And there are also examples: like the word "vecinos" they have divided it : vecin-o-s

and another examples: conejitos: conej-it-o-s
señoritas : señor-it-a-s

Here is the website: http://www.salonhogar.com/espanol/le...ex_mor_pre.htm

[wrholt]

That web site appears to claim that Spanish nouns inflect for gender, and that the word 'casa' has 2 morphemes, 'cas-a'. This directly contradicts claims of other linguists that Spanish nouns do not inflect for gender, ant that the word 'casa' has 1 morpheme, 'casa'.

These two schools of thought imply different answers to the question "what are the morphemes of the noun 'casa' (and of other nouns that end in 'a' or 'o')". The right answer for your test is the answer that the tester expects, but so far you haven't identified any evidence that might tell you which answer the tester expects. If you can find out before you have to take the test, you'll be all set. If you don't find out before the test, you'll have to decide how you want to answer such a question if it appears on your test.

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by wrholt

If you don't find out before the test, you'll have to decide how you want to answer such a question if it appears on your test.

Or be really clever, and give both answers with the explanation that there are two schools of thought.

[wrholt]

Originally Posted by Perikles

Or be really clever, and give both answers with the explanation that there are two schools of thought.

And here I thought I was being clever by trying not to suggest a particular resolution to the conundrum.

[Caramelita]

Originally Posted by Perikles

Or be really clever, and give both answers with the explanation that there are two schools of thought.

The thing is that there is no way of finding out the correct answers because its an entrance exam I only found out about the verdaderos because I did the exam last year but did not pass, so I asked for the correct answers

I have no idea how they expect me to divide the words... but I assume it has to be something not too complicated, to I think cas-a and cas-it-a-s is the answer. But.... We'll see what will happen Oh and i should only write 1 answer, so I guess it's all about luck

[wrholt]

Hmm, if the entrance exam is specific to the school to which you are applying, if you have the time you might see what you can find out about the instructors at the school and whether any of them have published anything about the topic. If there is, then perhaps you'll be able to do better than a 50/50 chance on your choice...

[JPablo]

¡Buena suerte, entonces!