Final Root-Forming Morphemes
1953; Duke University Press; Volume: 28; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/454128
ISSN1527-2133
Autores Tópico(s)Lexicography and Language Studies
ResumoA LTHOUGH the study of morphemes can never perhaps be put upon a strictly scientific basis,1 there still remains much to be done in identifying, analyzing, and understanding this characteristic of language structure. The purpose of this paper is to present an extensive list of one type-the final root-forming2 or terminal8 morpheme-and to make certain tentative suggestions concerning the phenomenon in English. A final root-forming morpheme is a phonemic block which terminates in the same language at least two different words (or is preceded by differentiating sounds or morphemes) and which functions as a unit conveying the same or a similar meaning. The -ash morpheme in English, for example, conveys a sense of violent striking action, as in bash, clash, crash, dash, gash, gnash, hash, lash, mash, pash, quash, slash, smash, and thrash. This particular morpheme is very widely distributed; most occur no more frequently than twice. In the list of words at the end of this article, upon which my comments are based, I have taken a strict definition of morpheme, excluding words like fresh and brash which show phonetic divergence in the final morpheme in most English dialects but which undoubtedly have mutually influenced each other and could under a broad definition be considered the same final morpheme. English and American provincial dialects could provide, I am sure, many more examples than those given here; but in general I have stayed close to standard English. I have also avoided what Bolinger has called neutral morphemes,4 such as affixes which indicate syntactic functions which would have swollen the lists without adding much to our knowledge. I have not allowed metathetic units as seen in dirt and grit. But I have ignored differences in parts of speech and have permitted functional shift. The examples fall into two major groups-onomatopoeic and what, for lack of a better name, I call 'abstract.' In the first, we find some kind of basic imitative sound pattern which suggests various types of noise, size, movement, light, periodicity, etc. These may be illustrated by the following pairs: bash, clash; bleat, tweet; bozince, jounce; burble, gurgle; buzzy, fuzzy; flimmer, glimmer; thwack, wack; and so forth. The second embraces a wide variety of
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