Stem Alternations and Other Morphological Processes
Stem modifications (i.e. apophony) may co-occur with other morphological processes, such as affixation. An example of this is in the formation of plural nouns in German:
-
Singular Plural Buch "book" Bücher "books" Haus "house" Häuser "houses"
Here the singular/plural distinction is indicated through ablaut and additionally by a suffix -er in the plural form. English also displays similar forms with a -ren suffix in the plural and a -en suffix in the past participle forms along with the internal vowel alternation:
-
child (singular) /ˈtʃaɪld/ children (plural) /ˈtʃɪldrən/ drive (imperative) /ˈdraɪv/ driven (past participle) /ˈdrɪvən/
A more complicated example comes from Chickasaw where the positive/negative distinction in verbs displays vowel ablaut along with prefixation (ak-) and infixation (-'-):
-
Positive Negative hilhali "I'm dancing" akhi'lho "I'm not dancing"
Read more about this topic: Apophony
Famous quotes containing the words stem and/or processes:
“Bite down
on the bitter stem of your nectared
rose, you know
the dreamy stench of death and fling
magenta shawls delicately
about your brown shoulders laughing.”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)
“All the followers of science are fully persuaded that the processes of investigation, if only pushed far enough, will give one certain solution to each question to which they can be applied.... This great law is embodied in the conception of truth and reality. The opinion which is fated to be ultimately agreed to by all who investigate is what we mean by the truth, and the object represented in this opinion is the real.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)