Roots and Affixes 词根及词缀.docVIP

Roots and Affixes Morphemes (minimal units of meaning) are of two basic kinds: roots and affixes . While there is not an absolutely sharp dividing line between them, due to the natural, gradual historical progression from root to affix, there are various properties that typically cluster together, thus allowing us to distinguish the two types. For most morphemes, it is clear which class they belong in. Properties of roots: main part of word must be at least one in a word in English, limited to two in a word (simple words have one, compound words have two); where roots are bound, as in Latin or Greek, more can occur in a word, but the number of roots in a particular word is generally small; can occur independently (free roots)--although bound roots , particularly classical, occur tend to have richer, more specific semantic content position is relatively free with respect to other roots (cf. photograph vs. telephoto) Properties of affixes: subordinate part of word not necessarily present--some words occur without any multiple affixes can occur in a word (e.g. in-divis-abil-ity) are dependent (bound) elements (where independent form found, generally to some degree dissociated from the bound version) have more schematic (non-specific) content; often grammar-like function can either precede or follow their roots ( prefixes and suffixes ,respectively) position for a given affix with respect to root is fixed Function Words A third type of linguistic element is a function word, which occurs in certain languages like English, which dont have much bound morphology -- that is, languages with lots of free morphemes, instead of mostly words with roots and attached bound morphemes. In such languages, many grammatical functions are served by function words: small units that have some independence, occuring with more freedom of position than affixes (thus they are somewhat root-like), but which have grammar-like meaning rather than concrete lexical content (which mak