Group 1: Analogical levelling

Describe the process of analogical levelling using the examples given below! Why is it often contrasted with sound change?

Example 1

                                   OE                              ModE

Present                        cēo[z]an                      choose  [z]

Past sg.                        cēa[s]                          chose    [z]

Past pl.                        cu[r]on                                    chose                [z]

Past participle               (ge)-co[r]en                 chosen  [z]

Present                        kiu[s]an                      küren    [r]

Past sg.                                    ko[s]                           kor        [r]

Past pl.                        ku[r]un                                    koren   [r]

Past participle               (gi)-ko[r]an                 gekoren [r]

Example 2

Latin

Stage 1: 400 BC

Nom sg.  Honos (honour)                                 labos (labour)

Acc. Sg.  Honōsem                                          labōsem

Gen. Sg.  Honōsis                                            labōsis

Stage 2: rhotacism: s > r /V_V

Nom. sg. Honos                                               labos

Acc. Sg.  Honōrem                                          labōrem

Gen. Sg.  Honōris                                            labōris

Stage 3:  after 200 BC ,   ???

Nom. Sg: honor                                                labor

Acc. Sg.  Honōrem                                          labōrem

Gen. Sg. Honōris                                             labōris

Group 2

Explain the mechanism of four-part analogy using the examples below! Under which circumstances does it operate ? Why are cases under (3) unlikely?

Example 1: English Plural Formation

a) OE: bōc (book) – bēc: books     b) shoe – shoon:shoes

Example 2: Non-standard forms of English

a) Arrive – arrove                   b) squeeze –squoze     c) dive - dove  

Example 3:  ???

a) sell : sold     => hell : *hold

b) think : thought : thought   =>   sink: *sought : *sought

Group 3

Which types of sporadic forms of analogy are represented by the following examples? Explain the mechanisms behind these forms!

a) scare : scary       smell : smelly     X : lazy      X = laze

    orientation => orientate;  sculptor => sculpt

b) Spanish: cucaracho   English: cockroach

    French:  ecrevisse      English: crayfish

    Latin:   arcuballista  => Old French: arbalester    MHG: armbrust

c) English: male : female  <=  Fr. male: femelle

    English: because of the immediate model of January, February has changed to Feburary       

   [fɛbjuwɛri], becoming more like January [ʤænjuwɛri]

d) a nædre => an adder ; a nauger => an auger;  an ewt => a newt

Definitions

1. Analogical levelling

a)Analogical levelling reduces the number of allomorphs a form has; it makes paradigms more uniform.

b) Complete or partial elimination of morpho-phonemic alternations that do not seem to signal important differences in meaning or function.

2. Analogical extension

a) Analogical extension extends the already existing alternation  of some pattern to new forms which did not formerly undergo the alternation.

b) Generalisation of a morpheme or relation which already exists in a language into new situations or forms.

c) Involves the remaking of a morphologically derived formation on the model of another, generally more productive derivational pattern by means of analogy.                           

3. Contamination

Due to frequent coordination (or co-occurrence) or adjacency in mental storage one word form influences form of another

4. Folk etymologies

a) Linguistic imagination finds meaningful associations in the linguistic forms which were not originally there and, on the basis of these new associations, either the original form ends up being changed somewhat or new forms based on it are created.

b) A word which seems opaque to the native speaker , often because it has a foreign origin, is reinterpreted or has its morphological boundaries shifted so that its semantic and morphological structures coincide, making it transparent.

5. Back formation

A new form is coined by analogy with other pairs of words which are related by a productive morphological process; the new form is the result of reversing this process.