Re: THEORY: Roots and stems

On Jun 24, 2004, at 10:07 PM, David Peterson wrote:

> Joerg wrote:
>
>  <<For example, in the English word form _players_, the stem is
>  _player_, but the root is _play_.>>
>
>  A very good example.  I'd just like to add that a confusion exists
>  because even linguists use these words in different ways--some-
>  times because different linguists have different definitions; some-
>  times by accident; and some even use the words interchangeably.
>  For this reason, I always find it helpful if they offer defines what
>  *they* mean by root and stem, even if they are, in fact, the real
>  definitions.
I think I agree with David, but there does seem to be some consensus
that 'stem' is a relational term; the stem for the plural ending in
'players' is 'player', and the stem for the agentive -er in 'player' is
'play'. That is, a stem is defined for a particular affix. Some
linguists restrict 'stem' to the form to which inflectional elements
are added, and use the term 'base' in a more general sense which would
include both inflectional and derivational operations.

Dirk
--
Dirk Elzinga
Dirk_Elzinga@byu.edu

Grammatica vna et eadem est secundum substanciam in omnibus linguis,
licet accidentaliter varietur. - Roger Bacon (1214-1294)