Re: confession: roots

At 11:53 am -0400 6/5/01, John Cowan wrote:
>Raymond Brown scripsit:
>
>> Affixes
>> include not only prefixes & suffixes but also infixes; since in the Semitic
>> langs vowels act as infixes, the root is the (usually triliteral)
>> consonants, e.g. KTB (write).
>
>Indo-European has infixes too, though less prominently.  The difference
>between "confound" and "confuse" (or more accurately their Latin originals)
>represents a nasal infix: the root is "fud", there is a prefix "con".

Quite right - and ancient Greek shows a strange formation for forming some
durative stems from the simple root, used as the base for the aorist forms,
by both infixing a nasal and adding -an-; but it seems clear that we are
not dealing with an infix plus a suffix but, rather, of a single affix, e.g.

e-thig-on = I touched;    e-thingan-on = I was touching  *
e-kikh-on = I found;      e-kinkhan-on = I was finding  *
e-lakh-on = I obtained    e-lankan-on = I was obtaining by lot
  by lot
e-lab-on = I took;        e-lamban-on = I was taking
e-lath-on = I lay hidden; e-lankhan-on = I was lying hidden
e-math-on = I learnt;     e-manthanon = I was learning
e-tykh-on = I happened    e-tynkhan-on = I was happening upon
   upon

* verbs used mainly in poetry.

The e- is a separate prefix, known the 'augment', which signifies past
time.  The aorist cannot have a present indicative tense, tho the durative
can (e.g. lambano: = I am taking, I take [habitually]).

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-.

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.

Are there agreed terms for such affixes?

Ray.



=========================================
A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
=========================================

Reply