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Unit 2: Nouns & Noun Phrases
Unit 2: Nouns & Noun Phrases
The goal of Unit 2 is to study nouns in order to determine the morphophonology of bound morphemes as well as the word order of independent morphemes in the noun phrase. The amount of time needed to research the underlying form of bound morphemes vs independent words in the NP will depend on the language being studied. It will take approximately 2 weeks to fully cover the topics included in Unit 2.
During Unit 2, "We succeeded in identifying the Njɔ́wi noun classes, worked up a noun phrase chart and identified many…of the noun phrase tonal phenomenon."
-Dr. Virginia (Ginger) Boyd
PRL Facilitator & Innovator (Cameroon)
Overview: Unit 2
Overview: Unit 2
Unit 2 Goals:
(1) Research Noun Morphology
Obligatory affixes (e.g. noun-class markings)
Non-obligatory affixes (e.g. plural markings, diminutives, and augmentatives)
(2) Analyze Noun Phrases
The types of modifiers occurring in the NP (e.g. numerals, demonstratives, and possessives)
The morphophonology of noun modifiers (i.e. their underlying roots and possible affixes)
Estimated Time Needed:
2 weeks
Optional:
Neologism Workshop (2-3 days)
Neologism workshops focus on the development of new vocabulary. Because these workshops tend to mostly elicit nouns, they fit best within Unit 2 or as a stand-alone workshop.
Outputs
Outputs
Possible outputs of Unit 2 include...
Noun class chart
Noun phrase position chart
Example sentences for an alphabet book
Corrected alphabet poster
Corrected and expanded lexicon
Preparing for Unit 2
Preparing for Unit 2
Before facilitating Unit 2, the workshop leader should continue reading up on any available literature on the language being researched and its language family, focusing research specifically on nominal morphology and noun phrases.
In addition, the leader should analyze the structure of the nouns collected during Unit 1. Based on this analysis, she or he should make some initial hypotheses of what is likely to be discovered during the Unit 2 research process.
Language & Context Considerations
Language & Context Considerations
If the language being studied does not have noun classes, it may be possible to fully cover Unit 2 in less than 2 weeks. Focus the research time on discovering the different types of noun modifiers possible and their ordering in the noun phrase. After this has been determined, concentrate on discussing word boundaries, specifically which modifiers should be attached to the noun and which ones should be written as separate words.
Unit 2 can also function as a stand-alone workshop for languages that already have an established alphabet but still need more research to determine rules for affixes and word boundaries. If the linguist(s) and language community have agreed to skip Unit 1, then 1-2 extra days should be added to the beginning of Unit 2 for writing down nouns that can serve as data (see Unit 1: Data Collection for details).
Unit 2 Content:
Unit 2 Content:
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