Re: Arabic and BACK TO Self-segregating morphology

On 12/20/05, Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...> wrote:

> Word consists of three consonants, each followed by a
> single vowel, or followed by a single vowel followed
> by 'N' (which is excluded from the list of valid
> consonants). Prefix consists of consonant followed by
> vowel pair ending in "o" or "u". Suffix consists of
> consonant followed by vowel pair ending in "i" or "e".
>
> > > (prefix + word1) + word2
>
> kiotakamintosanti = CVoCVCVCVnCVCVnCV, for example, is
> unambiguous.
>
...

> > prefix + (word1 + word2)
>
> CVoCVCVnCVnCVCVCV, for example, is unambiguous.
...

> The restrictions above are not that serious, and they
> get the job done.
>
Unless I'm missing something, they don't: both (prefix + w1) + w2 and
prefix + (w1 + w2) have the same patterns:

CVoCV(n)CV(n)CV(n)CV(n)CV(n)CV(n)

Same with the patterns with a final suffix.  Is the differing
placement of the n's significant?

> In fact here's another scheme: words are CV(n)...CV(n)
> as above, but not restricted to three consonants.
> Prefixes and suffixes also have the form CV or CVn.
> Prefixes are attached with a "linking: 'i', and
> suffixes are attached with a linking "o". When words
> are joined a linking "u" is used. Thus:
> (prefix)i(word)o(suffix)u(word).
>
This could be parsed a handful of ways:

((prefix i word) o suffix) u word
(prefix i (word o suffix)) u word
prefix i ((word o suffix) u word)

And for things like (prefix)i(word)u(word)o(suffix) there are at least
five ways to parse it.  We can figure out which morphemes are
prefixes, which are roots, and which are suffixes, but not their
hierarchical structure.

Anyway, there are answers; I just want to see if anyone has any
interesting solutions that don't require infixation, circumfixation,
or the equivalent.

-- Pat

Reply