The Righthand Head Rule in Derivational Morphology
In derivational morphology (i.e. the creation of new words), the head is that morpheme that provides the part of speech (PoS) information. According to the righthand head rule, this is of course the righthand element.
For instance, the word 'person' is a noun, but if the suffix '-al' is added and 'personal' is derived. 'Personal' is an adjective, and the righthand head rule holds that the PoS information is provided by the suffix '-al', which is the righthand element.
The adverb 'personally' is derived from 'personal' by adding the suffix '-ly'. The PoS-information is provided by this suffix which is added to the right of 'personal'.
The same applies to the noun 'personality', which is also derived from 'personal', this time by adding the nominal suffix '-ity' to the right of the input word. Again the PoS-information is projected from the righthand element.
The three above examples may be formalized thus (N=noun, ADJ=adjective, ADV=adverb):
- personN + -alADJ = personalADJ
- personalADJ + -lyADV = personallyADV
- personalADJ + -ityN = personalityN
They are all instance of the righthand head rule, which may be formalized as:
- Ax + By = Cy
Read more about this topic: Righthand Head Rule
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