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Understanding Morphological Analysis Techniques

May 10, 2025

Lecture on Morphological Analysis

Introduction

  • Topic: Morphological analysis, used to figure out language data sets and match translations.
  • Recommended Pre-requisite: Part 1 of the morphology video on the same channel, which covers:
    • What a morpheme is.
    • How to determine morphemes in a language with English examples.
  • Morphological analysis is similar to solving cryptoquip puzzles.

Approach to Morphological Analysis

  • Treat the data as a self-contained universe.
  • Forget any known information about the language.
  • Focus on the given forms and translations.
  • Example dataset involves ten forms with a few morphemes like "house," "dog," "cornfield," plural markers, possessive pronouns (my, your, his).

Steps in Morphological Analysis

Part 1: Identify Morphemes

  1. Find Minimal Pairs:
    • Compare forms that have one category of difference.
    • Example: "My house" vs. "My houses" to identify plural marker.
    • Determine that "mes" represents the plural marker in Michoacán Aztec.
  2. Determine Possessive Pronouns:
    • Compare forms "Your house" vs. "His house."
    • Identify "mo" as "your" and "i" as "his."
  3. Verify Through Deduction:
    • Cross-check with other forms to verify morphemes.
    • Example: "Your cornfield" contains "mo," verifying previous findings.
  4. Identify Remaining Morphemes:
    • Use process of elimination for remaining words like "dog," "cornfield."
    • Example: "peno" means "dog."

Part 2: Translate Michoacán Aztec to English

  • Example: Translate "ipanoh" to English.
  • Use established morphemes: "i" means "his," "peno" means "dog."
  • Translation: "His dog."

Part 3: Translate English to Michoacán Aztec

  • Example: English phrase "His cornfields."
  • Order in the language: Possessive pronoun + Noun + Plural marker.
  • Translation: "iquoquimehmes" (his + cornfield + plural marker).

Final Tips

  • Use visual aids like colored pencils or underlining to distinguish morphemes.
  • Treat each example as distinct data to be analyzed independently.

Conclusion

  • Morphological analysis involves identifying and mapping morphemes from a language dataset.
  • With practice, you can analyze any language dataset, regardless of prior knowledge.
  • Thank you for tuning in, and remember to treat each dataset as a unique language universe.

Full transcript