The study of the structure and formation of words and their component parts, "morphemes".
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39 views
Can words be based on just a prefix plus a suffix with no actual root morpheme between?
I was just looking at a Zulu word entry in Wiktionary that implied it was made from a prefix and a suffix, but there was nothing between them.
Now this could just be sloppy editing of Wiktionary but ...
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0answers
21 views
Are there conditions under which Georgian nouns omit the “-ი” case ending?
In Georgian most nouns in the nominative case end with "-ი" (-i), most other nouns end in another vowel.
In cases other than the nominative this ending may be replaced with a different ending but the ...
2
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1answer
37 views
Is phonics still considered a strong teaching tool for teaching reading skills?
A number of years ago there was a company called "Hooked on Phonics", which made a name for itself with a successful ad campaign, and whose aim was to emphasize connecting different phonemes of words ...
5
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64 views
Morphology of proper names
I'm wondering if there are any general morphological properties of proper names. If a word is used as a name, it will be constrained by whatever syntactic constraints that language uses from proper ...
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1answer
40 views
Several Questions Please Help with Answers [closed]
a. Some English words have more letters in their spelling than they have sounds in their pronunciation, but none have more sounds than they have letters.
b. If an English word has 3 vowels sounds, ...
3
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1answer
84 views
Is the second “ρ” in “διάρροια” from “διά” + “ῥέω” due to an assimilation?
Or which phenomenon is causing this? Is there a known reason or rule behind this?
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28 views
Is the use of a word in a morphological gap technically a speech production error?
Typically, speech production errors such as phoneme or morpheme exchange, anticipation, etc. are the result of interference in the speech production process. However, the use of a word in a ...
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0answers
16 views
How to fuzzily search for dictionary words? [migrated]
Suppose I have a dictionary of words, {'cat', 'cot', 'catalyst'}, and a character similarity relation f(x, y)
f(x, y) = 1, if x and y are similar
= 0, otherwise
These "similarities" can be ...
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1answer
52 views
Tools to identify lexicalization
Is there any tests or morphological test which can help to identify whether an expression is lexicalised or not? For example, whether some compounds are processed through morphological processes or ...
3
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0answers
77 views
What are the constituent morphemes in 'preposition'?
The word preposition. I am trying to break down a series of words into their constituent morphemes and am having trouble with the word 'preposition'.
I can obviously see that the 'pre-' is a morpheme ...
3
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3answers
118 views
Why do stem-changing verbs have a vowel change in Spanish?
It may just be that I'm demonstrating my gross ignorance, but I can't seem to find a 'why' for stem-changing verbs in Spanish. I understand that there is some sort of perceived weakness in the vowel ...
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1answer
66 views
Etymology and Morphology
In lexicography is the following claim correct?
To describe the origin of a word in a dictionary only you need either describe its 'etymology' (if that word has a single morpheme) or 'morphology' (if ...
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53 views
On price tags/labels why some nouns are used singular/plural regardless of countability?
Is there any explanation regarding why some nouns are used in singular form while the others are used in plural form such as price tags in stores or menus in restaurants. I know that in languages ...
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0answers
39 views
What, if any, aspects of linguistic typology affect the percentage of loanwords that a language has in its lexicon?
By "loanword," I'm referring to words borrowed into language X from other languages and altered only as the phonology of language X requires. Examples would include "le weekend" in French, "das ...
3
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0answers
71 views
Is there count/mass distinction in European Portuguese as it is in English?
It is said that European Portuguese has count/mass distinction as many Indo-European languages. However I noticed out that all products/items at stores in Portugal are labeled in singular form. In ...
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0answers
41 views
Are languages of different types described by different structures in language trees?
This thought occured to me after having a closed question read here. I drew five language trees for a same sentence rendered in five different languages, and the result was quite interesting.
...
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2answers
96 views
Is there a computer program/script that can match a verb with its various conjugations?
For example, matching "protest" with "protested", "protesting", "protests", and also matching less regular conjugations, like "run", "ran", "running" and "grab", "grabbed", "grabbed".
If there were ...
2
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1answer
78 views
Where to find examples of unique/uncommon syntax?
I've been immersed in the magic of languages since childhood (LOTR, Myst, Eragon) - and now that I'm dreaming up a world of my own, I'm interested in developing a unique and interesting language for ...
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0answers
27 views
Is it common for languages that lack grammatical number to make frequent use of numerical expressions?
Is it common for languages that lack grammatical number to make frequent use of numerical expressions?
This question was prompted by something I heard about Chinese, which lacks morphology that ...
5
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1answer
90 views
How do languages with imperfect aspect typically convey distinctions between habitual, iterative, and progressive aspects?
How does languages with imperfect aspects typically convey distinctions between habitual, iterative, and progressive aspects?
In English, which does not mark its verbs for imperfect aspect, we have ...
4
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2answers
60 views
Is there a catalog of phonological and morphological information about languages?
Let's say that I want to invent a sound which, if it already isn't a Dutch word, could potentially be one, because it exhibits the right morphology.
Is there some document where I could find "Dutch" ...
7
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4answers
123 views
Are the morphologies of languages based on regular grammars?
Is the sets of possible morphemes of any given language a regular set, and can thus be recognized by a finite state automaton, or, equivalently, matched by regular expressions?
Or are there any ...
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0answers
86 views
Is there a method for comparative morpheme analysis in historical aspect?
Is there a method for comparative morpheme analysis in historical aspect? To which degree is it accurate, if such a method exists?
When, where and who did invent it?
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0answers
41 views
Examples of category-changing reduplication
Are there examples of reduplication that clearly changes the syntactic category of a root/stem? I'm thinking of cases like:
pak, n 'tortilla'
pakpak, v 'make tortillas'
tap, a 'red'
tatap, v ...
7
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1answer
91 views
Can anyone point me toward articles/theory that syntax and morphology operate on the same principles?
Looking for articles and or theories that explore the idea that morphology and syntax are not separate but operate on the same principles; for example, that the sentence is just an extended ...
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1answer
68 views
Specifically in terms of nepomorpha, nepidae and further taxonomic classifications
I believe that the meaning of morpha is "form, like, kind". But where does the nepo prefix originate from? I seem to get a lot of terms like 'nepotism' in my searches, but I wonder how purely aquatic ...
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1answer
127 views
Meaning of sufformative versus suffix
In reading Daniel Block's commentary on Ezekiel, I have come across the word sufformative. (Block uses it of the Hebrew masculine singular ending -em.) I have searched all around but cannot find a ...
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0answers
82 views
Dimensions of a verb
A single verb usually describes an action or state --the common dimension of verb among languages.
But in addition to that it may convey more information e.g. tense, person, gender of subjective, ...
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2answers
916 views
Derivational vs. Inflectional Morphemes
Is the derivational/inflectional morpheme distinction particularly significant to linguists?
If so, is it more significant for languages other than English, which I think is less "inflected" than ...
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2answers
164 views
Is redundancy in language really impossible? (Case of the Spanish imperfect subjunctive)
I have heard time and again that languages will reject words and structures that are redundant. That is, for example, if though two words may seem like they are perfect synonyms (e.g., rotund and ...
5
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1answer
187 views
What is the origin of the Latin suffix -alis/-alia?
What is the origin of the Latin suffix -alis/-alia? Can it be an Etruscan borrowing? Is Russian adjectival suffix -аль- a borrowing from Latin?
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1answer
61 views
Word for road in PIE and overlaryngealism?
Lubotsky dictionary gives the word for "road" in PIE as
NOM *pónt-h₁-s
ACC *pont-éh₁-m
GEN *pnt-h₁-ós
This loos strange to me because I would expect a thematic vowel instead of the laryngeal. Can ...
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1answer
107 views
Could the *-trom ending in PIE be a zero-grade from agent suffix *-ter-/-tor-?
Given the agent suffix -ter- (which exhibited e-grade when meaning a profession or purpose and o-grade when meaning the recent perpetrator), can -trom suffix also be a zero grade from this one plus ...
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3answers
113 views
Is it possible to create English phonetics of a given word with correct morphology, and phonology?
Dictionaries contain near 80,000 entries (less or more than that) and most of those entries have phonetic pronunciations written beside them.
However, English might have more than a million words, if ...
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5answers
395 views
Why is English so much more simplified than other, similar languages?
English seems to have rules that are much more simple than its cousin German and its influencer French, as well as most of the languages that those are related to. What caused this? I suspect it's ...
2
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2answers
148 views
“Like” in English (and perhaps other languages)
How is English "like" — as in "you look like a monkey" — generally analyzed these days? I can think of two ways to go here. I'm tempted to call it either a preposition, or some sort of ...
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2answers
154 views
What is the maximum number of forms a (modern) Japanese verb can take?
Recently I've begun to wonder how many possible forms can be made from a single Japanese verb.
I asked a similar question first on the Japanese Language & Usage site, where I received some ...
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3answers
152 views
Is there a term for when words that sound like antonyms are actually synonyms?
Seeded grapes are actually seedless
An inflammable object is really flammable
It seems to me that, superficially, the use of those affixes make the words sound like they should be antonyms, ...
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0answers
108 views
What are some theoretical motivations for do-support?
I've been attempting to put together an overview of the various theoretical motivations that have been proposed for do-support in the literature, but the topic has been frustratingly difficult to ...
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0answers
99 views
Reciprocal vs Reflexive
In languages where the reflexive and reciprocal meaning is expressed with one single suffix, is the reciprocal considered a kind of reflexive suffix or is the reflexive a kind of reciprocal?
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4answers
271 views
Declinable conjunctions
Duolingo states: “In German, conjunctions do not change with the case (i.e. they are not declinable).”1 I started to think of languages I know, and I don't remember any which would have this property.
...
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5answers
269 views
Are there any languages where the genitive case changes according to its object?
In forms like Claudio's house or Claudio's dogs, are there languages in which the Claudio's would change depending on gender and number of the houses or dogs?
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3answers
91 views
Are deceased living things, or parts of living things, marked as animate in languages that mark animacy?
In natural languages that morphologically mark animacy vs. inanimacy on a largely semantic basis, (e.g. "hamster" is animate, "stone" is inanimate), which of the two noun-classes do terms for the ...
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2answers
247 views
Are there languages with more than three degrees of comparison?
In English and other languages there are three degrees of comparison: positive, comparative and superlative (e.g. tall, taller, tallest). Are there languages with more than three degrees, expressed ...
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2answers
212 views
Proper names: does grammatical gender imply natural gender?
Questions about grammatical gender abound on this forum and on other linguistics forums. It's well known that in general, grammatical gender need not coincide with natural gender.
However, I am ...
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1answer
91 views
Citations for morpheme/word counts?
(Edited to provide context and clarify what I'm interested in)
Context: I am reading a paper that involves comparing German, Dutch, and English. German is the outlier for the phenomena and measures ...
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4answers
180 views
Is there anything analogous to grammatical gender for verbs?
Grammatical gender often seems arbitrary from a semantic point of view. When I was taking French many years ago, we were told that one must simply memorize the gender for each noun. Are there any ...
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1answer
68 views
What are the contrasts between classifiers in isolating languages and genders in highly inflected ones?
Both isolating languages and inflected languages can have ways of marking noun classes like masculine nouns, nouns that stand for flat things, etc. Some isolating languages, like Chinese, have ...
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1answer
197 views
Italian past participle ending -uto
Why, in the paradigm for Italian past participles ending in -ere, does the regular past participle end in -uto? Whence the vowel, when the other two paradigms have -ato and -ito?
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1answer
131 views
(Proto-)Uralic case and number morphology
I've read that Proto-Uralic and some modern Uralic languages don't mark number on nouns marked for case.
So that, singular and plural is only distinguished in nominative (and maybe accusative?) case, ...
