Nonconcatenative morphology
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Nonconcatenative morphology is a form of word-formation in which the root is modified in a way other than by stringing morphemes together.[1] In English, for example, plurals are usually formed by adding the suffix /z/:
dog ↔ dog+/z/
However, certain words bear the remnants of older non-concatenative processes in their plural forms:
foot ↔ feet
This specific form of non-concatenative morphology is known as base modification, a form in which part of the root undergoes a phonological change without necessarily adding new phonological material. Other forms of base modification include lengthening of a vowel, as in Hindi:
/mar-/ "die" ↔ /maːr-/ "kill"
or tonal change, as in Chalcatongo Mixtec:
/káʔba/ "filth" ↔ /káʔbá/ "dirty".
Another form of non-concatenative morphology is known as transfixation, in which vowel and consonant morphemes are interdigitized. For example, depending on the vowels, the Arabic consonantal root k-t-b can have different but semantically-related meanings. Thus, [katab] 'he wrote' and [kita:b] 'book' both come from the root k-t-b. In the analysis provided by McCarthy's account of nonconcatenative morphology, the consonantal root is assigned to one tier, and the vowel pattern to another.[2]
Yet another common type of non-concatenative morphology is reduplication, a process in which all or part of the root is reduplicated. In Sakha, this process is used to form intensified adjectives:
/k̠ɨhɨl/ "red" ↔ /k̠ɨp-k̠ɨhɨl/ "flaming red".
A final common type of non-concatenative morphology is variously referred to as truncation, deletion, or subtraction. This process removes phonological material from the root, as in Murle:
/oɳiːt/ "rib" ↔ /oɳiː/ "ribs".
[edit] See also
[edit] References & Bibliography
- ↑ Haspelmath, Martin (2002). Understanding Morphology, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-340-76026-5.
- ↑ McCarthy, John J. (1981). A Prosodic Theory of Nonconcatenative Morphology. Linguistic Inquiry 12: 373-418.
[edit] External links
| This page uses content from the English-language version of Wikipedia. The original article was at Nonconcatenative morphology. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Psychology Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |
