The following words from Chamorro, spoken in Guam and the Mariana Islands, all involve derivation. (Data are presented in Chamorro orthography.) I. Root Derived word a) adda ‘mimic’ b) kanno ‘eat’ c) tuge ‘write’ aadda ‘mimicker’ kakanno ‘eater’ tutuge ‘writer’ II. Root Derived word d) atan ‘look at’ e) sangan ‘tell’ f) guaiya ‘love’ g) tulaika ‘exchange’ h) chalek ‘laugh’ i) ngangas ‘chew’ atanon ‘nice to look at’ sanganon ‘tellable’ guaiyayon ‘lovable’ tulaikayon ‘exchangeable’ chalekon ‘laughable’ ngangason ‘chewable’ III. Root Derived word j) nalang ‘hungry’ k) dankolo ‘big’ l) metgot ‘strong’ m) bunita ‘pretty’ nalalang ‘very hungry’ dankololo ‘very big’ metgogot ‘very strong’ bunitata ‘very pretty’ Like inflection, derivation can be expressed in a variety of ways—including by affixation of various types (prefixation, suffixation, infixation) and by reduplication.
i) What morphological process is manifested in I? in II? in III? ii) Formulate a general statement that describes how the derived words in I are formed. Do the same for II and III. iii) One of these derivational processes consists of affixation involving allomorphs. What is the distribution of the allomorphs?
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