Introduction to chapter 4 X-tra

News and objectives in chapter 1-4X

Say hello to a few common nouns (henceforward N) and to your first derivational morphemes. By the end of today's exercises you will be able to handle thousands of wordforms.

You will observe that today's exercises introduce only a few new items but you will most likely also observe that playing with the new derivational morphemes forces you to have a lot on your plate. But do not worry! I know from personal experience that it is doable after all.

Play with a few derivational morphemes added to nouns

  • N-QAR to have N 4a/ there is N
  • N+TUR to eat/drink N 4b
A number of semantic restrictions apply as to what kind of N one can have/own. For instance will pisiniarfik-QAR not mean "*he has a shop" without an extra morpheme -UTE as in pisiniarfiuteqarpoq. Still, it is well-formed with an impersonal subject pisiniarfeqarpoq (There is a shop) Where N must be drinkable or edible. whiskytorpunga and pizzatorpoq are well-formed verbs whereas *pisiniarfittorpunga is nonsense.

Play with a few derivational morphemes added to verbs

  • V+GUSUP to want to Vb

You will

  1. continue training the skill you cannot be without namely the two-sided ability to perceive surface words and at the same time to produce words out of abstract bits and pieces underlying the surface words you hear
  2. understand the wordforms you know by now in context
  3. form a few simple sentences

Lexical material you need to know to manage today's exercises

N

  • ateq+ a name
  • pisiniarfik+ a shop
  • pizza pizza
  • tii tea
  • whisky whisky

What you need to know about processes and changes (phonology)

Adding to your knowledge

  • /g/ fuses with preceding /q/ or /r/ and becomes /r/. Hence aallar+GUSUP → aallarusup (to want to depart)
  • /g/ becomes /k/ if preceded by a consonant other than /q/ or /r/. Hence tikip+GUSUP → tikipkusup → tikikkusup 4c
Remember that whenever two consonants meet the first one assimilates to the second one.