A. morpheme n morphemic
adj
The
smallest meaningful unit in a language. A morpheme cannot be divided without
altering or destroying its meaning. For example, the English word kind is a morpheme. If the d is
removed, it changes to kin, which has a different meaning. Some words
consist of one morpheme, e.g. kind, others
of more than one. For example, the English word unkindness consists of three morphemes: the STEM1 kind, the negative prefix un-, and
the noun-forming suffix -ness.
Morphemes can have grammatical functions. For
example, in English the -s
in she talks is
a grammatical morpheme which shows that the verb is the third-person
singular present-tense form.
B. allomorph n
any
of the different forms of a MORPHEME. For example, in English the plural
morpheme is often shown in writing by adding -s to
the end of a word, e.g. cat
/kæt/ – cats /kæts/. Sometimes this plural
morpheme is pronounced /z/, e.g. dog /díg/ – dogs /dígz/, and
sometimes it is pronounced /Iz/, e.g. class /klæs/
– classes /`klæsız/. /s/, /z/, and /Iz/ all have the same grammatical function in these examples, they
all show plural; they are all allomorphs of the plural morpheme.
C. root n
also
base form
a
MORPHEME which is the basic part of a word and which may, in many languages,
occur on its own (e.g. English: man, hold, cold, rhythm). Roots may be joined to other roots (e.g. English: house _ hold
→ household)
and/or take AFFIXes (e.g. manly,
coldness) or COMBINING
FORMs (e.g. biorhythm).
D. base form n
another term for ROOT OR STEM1.
For
example, the English word helpful has the base
form help.
E. stem1
n
also
base form
that
part of a word to which an inflectional AFFIX is or can be added. For example,
in English the inflectional affix -s can be added to the stem work to form the plural works in the works of Shakespeare. The stem of a word may be:
a. a simple stem consisting of only one morpheme (ROOT), e.g. work
b. a root plus a derivational affix, e.g. work _ -er
_ worker
c. two
or more roots, e.g. work
_ shop _
workshop.
Thus
we can have work
_ -s _
works, (work _ -er) _
workers, or
(work _ shop)
_ -s _
workshops.
F. Stem versus roots
STEM and ROOT are used to refer to the
‘base’ of a word. The part to which affixes attach. The distinction between
them is based on the distinction between inflectional and derivational.
Consider a word like ‘kickers’, it contains two suffixes, one
derivational (-er), the other
inflectional (-s). strip both affixes
off and you are left with kick, which
we call a ROOT. Add back on the derivational suffix –er and you get kicker,
we call the STEM.
More
generally, a root is any single morpheme which is not an affix. Normally, you
can find a root by removing all the affixes (both derivational and
inflectional) from a word. The stem of a word, on other hand, is found by
removing all the inflectional affixes, but leaving any derivational affixes in
place.
A root is always a single morpheme. A
stem on the other hand, may consists of more than one morpheme. Many stems,
like cat consists of only a single
root. The stem and the root are identical.
other
stems consists of two or more roots, as in view-point.
Neither view nor point is an affix and both are single morphemes. So they are
both considered to be roots.
a
stem containing more than one root is called a COMPOUND STEM or simply a
COMPOUND; the process of forming such stems is called COMPOUNDING.
Compounding may, in some cases, involve
derivational affixes too, as in rabble-rouser-r;
this stem consists of two roots plus a derivational suffix.
and
stem may contain more than one derivational affix, as in interlinearizer (a type of computer program that is used by
linguists for inserting interlinear word-by-word or morpheme-by-morpheme
glosses in a text)
thus,
a stem consist of one or more roots, plus zero or more derivational affixes. A
root, in contrast, is always a single morpheme.
All stems serve as the base to which
inflectional affixes attach. So, for example, all the nouns mentioned above
have plural forms.
a. cat-s
b. kicker-s
c. viewpoint-s
d. rabble-rouser-s
e. interlinearizer-s
virtually
all roots are also stems and the simplest stems (those consisting of only one
morpheme) are also roots.
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