Nonconcatenative morphology



Nonconcatenative morphology is a form of word-formation in which the root is modified in a way other than by stringing morphemes together. In English, for example, plurals are usually formed by adding the suffix /z/:

dog ↔ dog+/z/

However, certain words bear the remnants of older non-concatenative processes in their plural forms:

foot ↔ feet

This specific form of non-concatenative morphology is known as base modification, a form in which part of the root undergoes a phonological change without necessarily adding new phonological material. Other forms of base modification include lengthening of a vowel, as in Hindi:

// "die" ↔ // "kill"

or tonal change, as in Chalcatongo Mixtec:

// "filth" ↔ // "dirty".

Another form of non-concatenative morphology is known as transfixation, in which vowel and consonant morphemes are interdigitized. For example, depending on the vowels, the Arabic consonantal root k-t-b can have different but semantically-related meanings. Thus, [katab] 'he wrote' and [kita:b] 'book' both come from the root k-t-b. In the analysis provided by McCarthy's account of nonconcatenative morphology, the consonantal root is assigned to one tier, and the vowel pattern to another.

Yet another common type of non-concatenative morphology is reduplication, a process in which all or part of the root is reduplicated. In Sakha, this process is used to form intensified adjectives:

// "red" ↔ // "flaming red".

A final common type of non-concatenative morphology is variously referred to as truncation, deletion, or subtraction. This process removes phonological material from the root, as in Murle:

// "rib" ↔ // "ribs".