science

Nonconcatenative morphology

Nonconcatenative morphology is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Nonconcatenative morphology rather than just read about it. In short: Nonconcatenative morphology, also called discontinuous morphology and introflection, is a form of word formation and inflection in which the root is modified and which does not involve stringing morphemes together sequentially. Types Apophony (including Ablaut and Umlaut) In English, for example, while plurals are usually formed by adding the suffix -s, certain words use nonconcatenative processes for their plural f…

Key takeaways

Nonconcatenative morphology belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Nonconcatenative morphology to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Nonconcatenative morphology from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Nonconcatenative morphology, also called discontinuous morphology and introflection, is a form of word formation and inflection in which the root is modified and which does not involve stringing morphemes together sequentially.

Types

Apophony (including Ablaut and Umlaut) In English, for example, while plurals are usually formed by adding the suffix -s, certain words use nonconcatenative processes for their plural forms:

foot /fʊt/ → feet /fiːt/; Many irregular verbs form their past tenses, past participles, or both in this manner:

freeze /ˈfriːz/ → froze /ˈfroʊz/, frozen /ˈfroʊzən/. This specific form of nonconcatenative morphology is known as base modification or ablaut, a form in which part of the root undergoes a phonological change without necessarily adding new phonological material. In traditional Indo-Europeanist usage, these changes are termed ablaut only when they result from vowel gradations in Proto-Indo-European. An example is the English stem s⌂ng, resulting in the four distinct words: sing-sang-song-sung. An example from German is the stem spr⌂ch "speak", which results in various distinct forms such as spricht-sprechen-sprach-gesprochen-Spruch. Changes such as foot/feet, on the other hand, which are due to the influence of a since-lost front vowel, are called umlaut or more specifically I-mutation. Other forms of base modification include lengthening of a vowel, as in Hindi:

/mər-/ "die" ↔ /maːr-/ "kill" or change in tone or stress:

Chalcatongo Mixtec /káʔba/ "filth" ↔ /káʔbá/ "dirty" English record /ˈrɛkərd/ (noun) ↔ /rɨˈkɔrd/ "to make a record" Consonantal apophony, such as the initial-consonant mutations in Celtic languages, also exists.

Transfixation

Another form of nonconcatenative morphology is known as transfixation, in which vowel and consonant morphemes are interdigitated. For example, depending on the vowels, the Arabic consonantal root k-t-b can have different but semantically related meanings. Thus, [kataba] 'he wrote' and [kitaːb] 'book' both come from the root k-t-b. Words from k-t-b are formed by filling in the vowels, e.g. kitāb "book", kutub "books", kātib "writer", kuttāb "writers", kataba "he wrote", yaktubu "he writes", etc. 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. Extensive use of transfixation only occurs in Afro-Asiatic and some Nilo-Saharan languages (such as Lugbara) and is rare or unknown elsewhere.

Reduplication

Yet another common type of nonconcatenative 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: /k̠ɨhɨl/ "red" ↔ /k̠ɨp-k̠ɨhɨl/ "flaming red"

Truncation A final type of nonconcatenative morphology is variously referred to as truncation, deletion, or subtraction; the morpheme is sometimes called a disfix. This process removes phonological material from the root. In spoken French, this process can be found in a small subset of plurals (although their spellings follow regular plural-marking rules): os /ɔs/ "bone" ↔ os /o/ "bones" œuf /œf/ "egg" ↔ œufs /ø/ "eggs" bœuf /bœf/ "ox" ↔ bœufs /bø/ "oxen"

Semitic languages Nonconcatenative morphology is extremely well developed in the Semitic languages in which it forms the basis of virtually all higher-level word formation (as with the example given in the diagram). That is especially pronounced in Arabic, which also uses it to form approximately 41% of plurals in what is often called the broken plural.

See also Autosegmental phonology Apophony Transfix Disfix

References

External links Alexis NEME and Eric Laporte (2013), Pattern-and-root inflectional morphology: the Arabic broken plural |year= Alexis NEME and Eric Laporte (2015), Do computer scientists deeply understand Arabic morphology? – هل يفهم المهندسون الحاسوبيّون علم الصرف فهماً عميقاً؟, available also in Arabic, Indonesian, French

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nonconcatenative morphology

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nonconcatenative morphology claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Nonconcatenative morphology before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Nonconcatenative morphology ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Nonconcatenative morphology

In research: Nonconcatenative morphology appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Nonconcatenative morphology in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Nonconcatenative morphology is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Linguistic morphology, Semitic linguistics, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Nonconcatenative morphology outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Nonconcatenative morphology in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Nonconcatenative morphology means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Nonconcatenative morphology out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Nonconcatenative morphology in simple terms?

Why does Nonconcatenative morphology matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Nonconcatenative morphology?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Nonconcatenative morphology.