The Digital Polyglot - Morphosyntax

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E. Girls and Bicycles. The data sets in this section are designed to show how pluralization and agreement patterns work in our featured languages. For each language, a basic sentence about girls stealing bicycles goes through a series of changes to illustrate the how noun pluralization occurs and how adjectives and numbers modify nouns. Students can work through the data sets to do morpheme identification and to make typological comparisons. A set of homework questions is at the end of the data sets. There are also a few interactive sections where you can test your knowledge. Click on the underlined sentences to hear audio clips.

Girls and Bicycles. The World of Plurals, Adjectives and Numerals.

1 Visokaja devushka ukrala velosiped.
1 The tall girl stole a bicycle

2 Visokaja devushka ukrala novij velosiped.
2 The tall girl stole a new bicycle

3 Visokie devushki ukrali novie velosipedi.
3 The tall girls stole new bicycles

4 Visokie devushki ukrali odin novij velosiped.
4 The tall girls stole one new bicycle

5 Tri visokie devushki ukrali dva novie velosipeda.
5 Three tall girls stole two new bicycles

6 Pjat' visokikh devushek ukrali tri novie velosipeda.
6 Five tall girls stole three new bicycles

7 Dve visokie devushki ukrali pjat' novikh velosipedov.
7 Two tall girls stole five new bicycles

Test your knowledge of Russian:

Use the information on these web pages and type your answers in the boxes below. Listen to find out how you did:
khorosho = good
molodtsi = excellent
nepravilno, poprobujte opjat = incorrect, try again

Q1: What is the word for bicycle in Russian?

Q2: What is the root for "tall" in Russian?

Q3: In Russian, adjectives and nouns use genitive plural with numbers five and above.
The Russian word for eight is vosem'. How would you say "eight tall bicycles" in Russian?

Q4: What is genetive plural ending for adjectives in Russian?

Girls and Bicycles. The World of Plurals, Adjectives and Numerals.

1 Umwanakashi umutali aaciiba incinga.
1 The tall girl stole a bicycle.

2 Umwanakashi umutali aaciiba incinga iipya.
2 The tall girl stole a new bicycle.

3 Abanakashi abatali baaciiba incinga ishipya.
3 The tall girls stole new bicycles.

4 Abanakashi abatali baaciiba incinga imo iipya.
4 The tall girls stole one new bicycle.

5 Abanakashi abatali batatu baaciiba incinga ishipya shibili.
5 Three tall girls stole two new bicycles.

6 Abanakashi abatali basaano baaciiba incinga ishipya shitatu.
6 Five tall girls stole three new bicycles.

7 Abanakashi abatali babili baaciiba incinga ishipya shisaano.
7 Two tall girls stole five new bicycles.

Test your knowledge of Bemba:

Use the information on these web pages and type your answers in the boxes below. Listen to find out how you did:
Mwaacita bwino = You did well!
Mwaalungika = You're right.
Mwabombeeni = Good job!
Bwekesheenipo = Sorry, try again.

Q1: What is the Bemba word for bicycle?

Q2: What is the Bemba word for bicycles?

Q3: What is the Bemba root word for two?

Q4: What is the agreement marker for the word 'bicycles' on the adjective?

Girls and Bicycles. The World of Plurals, Adjectives and Numerals.

1 Sa: gaoi se uila e le teine 'umi.
1 The tall girl stole a bicycle.

2 Sa: gaoi se uila fou e le teine 'umi.
2 The tall girl stole a new bicycle.

3 Sa: gaoia e ni teine 'umi ni uila fou.
3 The tall girls stole many new bicycles.

4 Sa: gaoia se uila fou e ni teine 'umi.
4 The tall girls stole one new bicycle.

5 Sa: gaoia uila fou se lua e teine 'umi se to'atolu.
5 Three tall girls stole two new bicycles.

6 Sa: gaoia uila fou se tolu e teine 'umi se to'alima.
6 Five tall girls stole three new bicycles.

7 Sa: gaoia uila fou se lima e teine 'umi se to'alua.
7 Two tall girls stole five new bicycles.

Test your knowledge of Samoan:

Use the information on these web pages and type your answers in the boxes below. Listen to find out how you did:
Sa'o = Right!
Manaia le taumafai. = Very nice job!
E le sa'o. taumafai atili. = That's not correct. Try again!

Q1: What is the affix added to numbers when counting persons? (Hint: lua = 2, tolu = 3, lima = 5)

Q2: How would you say "five girls" in Samoan?

Q3: If lanumeamata is green in Samoan, then how do you say "the green bicycle"?

Girls and Bicycles

Study the data sets for Russian, Samoan, and Bemba in this section and answer the questions below. Use the information from the Morphology pages and the Pronoun page to help you with morpheme identification.

1 What happens when a human noun is modified by an adjective in Russian? In Bemba? In Samoan? How would you describe the general pattern?

2 What happens when a human noun is modified by a number in Russian? In Bemba? In Samoan? How would you describe the general pattern?

3 What happens when a non-human noun is modified by an adjective in Russian? In Bemba? In Samoan? How would you describe the general pattern?

4 What happens when a non-human noun is modified by a number in Russian? In Bemba? In Samoan? How would you describe the general pattern?

5 What are some of the key similarities and differences in how these three languages handle adjectives and numbers?

6 Other observations or questions?

If you need more hints to crack these data sets, click here.

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