Page 338 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Linguistics

Notes • We have also shown that there is a quite sharp distinction between two classes of infixes in
Spanish: morpho-syntactic infixes, which correspond to syntactic heads, and morpho-
phonological infixes, which are part of specific allomorphs inserted to materialise abstract
hierarchical configurations. Their semantic and formal properties are also different, as we
have noted in sections two and three.
• Due to this distinction and the way in which we derive the two classes' properties from the
different status of these elements, our analysis provides evidence for a distinction between
two levels of analysis for complex words, one where the configurational properties of the
word are defined following syntactic principles, and another where particular pieces with
idiosyncratic properties are inserted. Distributed Morphology provides a general framework
where this distinction can be framed, due to Late Insertion.
• One of the possible extensions of our analysis - which we will not explore here - has to do
with the Spanish 'suffix' -ear. Under the light of this article, it would be worth studying
whether this element is one single suffix or rather a sequence of two different suffixes,
Mannerº and little vº. Let us note that most verbs with morphosyntactic infix contain the
sequence -ear. One possibility that we would like to suggest is that verbs with -ear and
without an infix also contain MannerP, maybe with some special characteristics. However,
this will have to be the subject of a different article.
26.9 Key-Words

1. Inflectional affixes : The Morphemes which serve a purely grammatical function, such as
referring to and giving extra linguistic information about the already
existing meaning of a word (e.g., number, person, gender, case, etc.),
expressing syntactic relations2 between words (e.g. possession,
comparison), among others. For instance, the different forms of the
verb speak are all considered to be verbs too, namely, speak, spoken,
speaking.
2. Roots and Stems : Roots (or bases) are the morphemes (free or bound) that carry the
principal or basic concept, idea or meaning in a word. They generally
constitute the nuclei or cores of words. When roots are free morphemes,
they constitute content (and function) words by themselves, such as
book, dog, house, carry, quick, early, etc.
3. Affixation : Consists in adding derivational affixes (i.e., prefixes, infixes and
suffixes) to roots and stems to form new words. For example, if the
suffix -able is added to the word pass, the word passable is created.
Likewise, if to the word passable the prefix in- (or rather its allomorph
im-) is attached, another word is formed, namely impassable. Affixation
is a very common and productive morphological process in synthetic
languages. In English, derivation is the form of affixation that yields
new words.
26.10 Review Questions

1. Put stress on the following words (try to put secondary stress marks on as well).
(i) shopkeeper (ii) confirmation (iii) Javanese (iv) birthmark
(v) anti-clockwise (vi) confirmation (vii) eight-sided (viii) fruitcake
(ix) defective (x) roof timber
2. Define affix.
3. Distinguish between suffix and prefix.

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