Re: confession: roots

Raymond Brown wrote:
>At 11:53 am -0400 6/5/01, John Cowan wrote:
> >Raymond Brown scripsit:
[snip]
>What does one call such an affix?  I have seen the terms 'circumfix' or
>'ambifix'; but as understand it, this refers to an affix which combines
>prefix and suffix, like English em/n.......en in _em-bold-en_,
>_en-light-en_ - if indeed this is a single affix and not simply two
>affixes.  But I think surer examples do exist in some natlangs.
>
>But AFAIK there's no term for an affix that is partly infixed & partly
>suffixed to a root or stem like the ancient Greek -m/n...an-.
Hm, going on logic [dodging incoming vegetables], 'circumfix' would I guess
strictly refer to the "embolden" phenomenon, while 'ambifix' could refer to
any multiple-bits affix.
>
>In theory one could have an affix which is partly prefixed & partly
>infixed.  Indeed, I'd be surprised if it never occurred in any natlang.
Don't some Arabic inflection patterns work that way?

                                                 Andreas
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