Week 12
- hierarchically organzed into strata
- affixes belong to only one stratum. Each stratum is associated with a particular set of phonological and morphological properties.
- A minimum number of strata is ideal, but there is no agreement what the minimum number are.
- Each stratum is cyclical.
- Morpheme ordering reflects hierarchical ordering of strata. S1 is closer to the root than S2.
- Goldsmith (hardly a criticism)
- accepts that the Lexicon has hierarchical strata.
- wants two kinds of roots
- type 1: changing: long, length; deep, depth.
- type 2: nonchanging: high, hight; warm,warmth.
- Some could end up in both types:
- 'various, va'riety, 'variously
- K thinks that the affixes are determined by the base, or by the highest suffixes added to the base:
- That is, -ly is added to the base vari-ous, and in particular -ous which permits -ly, ness; variety or rather the suffix "-ety" does not permit them (but 'ly' can only be added to adjectival bases: * varietily, *varietiness.
- Goldsmith 2
- -ize seems to both a stratum 1 and a stratum 2.
- 1: 'catholic, ca'tholicize.
- 2: Ber'muda, Ber'mudaize.
- doesn't affect the stress
- fails to delete final vowel.
- K wants to have two homophonous suffixes.
- one S1 and the other S2.
- K argues that there are two "able" suffixes:
- able/ible, S1: defend, defensible; divide, divisible.
- S1. causes truncation of "-ate": tolerate, tolerable
- able (only, S2: decifer, deciferable.
- K continues noting that either the S1 or the S2 can be adjoined:
- divisible, dividable; perceptible, perceivable.
- S1 is semantically opaque: possible, sensible, reasonable.
- K makes a good point with "able" and "able/ible".
- But is 'ize' really two? Maybe. "-ize" is becoming productive.
- And when it becomes productive, it doesn't affect stress.
- Note that this does not necessary argue for strata.
- It does argue for suffixes undergoing a change in properties.
- ambiguous
- a lawyer who is criminal
- a lawyer who takes on criminal cases
- bracketing resolves the ambiguity:
- [A criminal] [N lawyer]
- [N criminal law] - [NSuf er]
- Some say that the suffix must be reposition so that it attaches to a simple noun yielding something like: [N criminal] [N lawyer]
- This seems like bologna (BS) to me.
- Is there any rule that blocks adding "-er" to a compound noun?
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This page last updated 22 MR 2004