Dissertation - Michael Becker

(114) “surface” language “deep” languageaSív aSov-ót aSív aSov-ímaxís axos-ót axís axos-ímamíg amog-ót amíg amog-ímazíx azox-ót azíx azox-ímadíc adoc-ót adíc adoc-ímagóf agif-ím agóf agif-ótapóz apiz-ím apóz apiz-ótacók acik-ím acók acik-ótabóS abiS-ím abóS abiS-ótalód alid-ím alód alid-ótNote that the ten singulars are exactly identical in the two languages. The ten pluralstems are also identical, but the choice of plural allomorph is different: In the “surface”language, plural stems with [o] select –ot, and plural stems with [i] select –im. In the“deep” language, it is not the plural stem, but rather the singular stem that selects –ot if ithas [o] and –im if it has [i]. Another way to think about the “deep” language is to say thatplural stems with [o] select –im, and plural stems with [i] select –ot.After participants were trained and tested on one of the languages in (114), they wereasked to generate plurals for the twenty nouns in (115). The responses were rated for theirsuccess in applying the vowel changes and the selection of the plural affix, where successwas defined as the replacement of a singular [o] with a plural [i] and vice versa, and theselection of a plural affix according the generalization in the relevant language.114