TOS Presentation Copy

8/3/2019 TOS Presentation Copy

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/tos-presentation-copy 1/9

Irregular Nouns Plurals andVerbs

By Bryan McClellanWith the guidance of the GreatMaruianne Celce-Murcia

Donna GoodwinWith Barry Griner



Nouns

What is the Germanic Umlaut system doing in in someirregular English plural nouns?Verbs

The six sound-based groups of we ak irr eg ular v e rbs .

The seven groups of stron g irr eg ular v e rbs .Part-Of-Speech AlternationsStress differencesPrefix-plus-stem combinations

Voicing

What we shall discuss



I will not extensively review irregular pluralnouns from Latin or Greek . (Rules are beingdebated .)

Focus/foci, Criterion/Criteria, Alumnus/Alumni,Syllabus/Syllabi

There is no phonological based rulesgoverning:Deer, Elk, Sheep, Moose, Fish(So blame the Animal Kingdom )

A Word of Warning From the

Grammar Police



In this system, the the vowel in the plural noun form becomes

more fronted and/or higher because of assimilation to a vowelthat follows .The syllable that follows rule is no longer evident in modernEnglish but can be seen in some irregular plural nouns .

The Germanic Umlaut

System and itsDoppelgänger

M od e rn En g lish M od e rn Ge rmanGoose Geese Gans Gänse

Man Men Mann Männer Mouse Mice Maus Mäuse

F ig ur e 1: The Ge rmanic F amily



The -en ending in : Child / Children, Ox / Oxen

Notice woman /w m n/ women /w m n/The Germanic rule in English has weakened over timebut we can see it occur with the plural of /f/ (singular ) voiced to /vz/ (plural, voiced ).

Warning: This is notuniversal to all nounsending in f

Eg. Belief / beliefs

Other Irregular Plurals

in English

L ife / L ive s Se lf / Se lve s

Wife / Wives Shelf / Shelves

Knife / Knives Half / Halves

Figure 2: Stewie said The life of the wife isended by the knife . He could have used theplural and demonstrated this irregular rule .



Because you are all masters at grammar . Please doexercise 1 with a partner . When in doubt, use the word in a sentence . Some words change sounds withchanging without changing spelling .If you can give the IPA vowel

Sweet

Enough of me howling . Lets

do an activity!



1. Ending consonant /d/ /t/2. Neither /d/ nor /t/ change with the tenses3. Verbs with /iy/ in the base form / / + /t/4. Verbs with historically shortened vowel

1. /iy/ / /2. /ay/ / /

3. /uw/ /a, /5. Verbs in the past tense and the participle / t/

- ought, -aught6. / + l / in the base /ow/ + /ld/ in the past and the

participle

Weak Irregular Verbs



1. Present / /, past / æ /, participle / /2. Past tense and participle are identical .3. Same vowel sound in the past tense and participle + -n or

-en / n/4. Verbs with long I /ay/ for the base, /ow/ in the past tense,

and short i / / with en with the participle . 5. Base and past-participle are identical . Vowel change in

the past tense only .

6. Change in the past tense but the participle in the baseand -n or en / n/. 7. I blame Chaucer, completely irregular, happens to

a lot of Indo-European languages though .

Strong Irregular Verbs

Why

blameme?



1. Noun /s/ verb /z/: House / House, Use / Use2. Noun / / verb /ð/: Bath / Bathe, Cloth / Clothe3. Noun /f/ verb /v/: Life / Live, Safe / Save4. Verb /t / adjective / d/: learned, blessed

5. Stress Differences: an EXit / to EXit1. Opposite: adVANCE, conTROL, reGRET

6. Noun vs . Verb prefix stem: An O FFset / to offSE T,7. Noun / Adjective vs. Verb: RECord, reCORD

Voicing

TOS Presentation Copy

Documents

Transcript of TOS Presentation Copy