Re: THEORY: Question: Bound Morphemes

Charles wrote:
>Ray agrees with you also ... But these still feel like very=20
>separate words to me, and apparently also for Trask in his message,=20
>in comparison to Basque in which the articles are always glued onto=20
>other words, even inducing sound changes. A "bound morpheme" means=20
>"bound into a word", I stubbornly still think. This is not "just" a=20
>spelling thing. English and many other langs have a strong sense of=20
>what is a word, whereas in Chinese and others it is much more fluid.
>
>Even in the sense of being "bound" by not occuring alone,
>"the" is just a form of "this/that", and "a/an" equal "one",
>which do stand alone. So in my dialect, they are liberated.
>
Wow! That's interesting! You mean to say that in your dialect you=20
still consider "the" a demonstrative, and you still consider "a/an"=20
a numeral? So say I ask you a question like "Which one is yours?",=20
you could answer "The!"? That sounds really weird to me.

In my dialect (International School Manila English - which is=20
probably very close to the English spoken in California), its not=20
acceptable to answer such a question with "The!". I have to say=20
"This!" or "That!". The morpheme "the" to me must be cliticized to a=20
word whether it be a head, a modifier, or a numeral.

Or say I ask you, "How many do you have?". You could answer "An!"?=20
This also sounds really weird to me. I would answer, "One!". The=20
morpheme "an" to me must cliticized as well in my dialect.

What dialect of English is it you speak?

-kristian- 8)