Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Different types of roots; temporary/permanent stative verbs?

From:Muke Tever <alrivera@...>
Date:Friday, May 4, 2001, 4:35
From: "Eric Christopherson" <rakko@...>
> After only a few years <g>, I think I'm getting close to working out a > framework for roots and derivations in Dhak. But I'm wondering what kinds of > constraints natlangs have for roots (by which I mean the fundamental > morphemes that actual usable words are made of, but which do not necessarily > form usable words by themselves). I've decided there should be 3 or 4 kinds > of roots: noun, stative, eventive, and maybe pronoun. So, the question is: > Are there any natlangs in which different types of roots have different > phonotactic constraints? For example, noun roots would be CVCVC, and verb > roots CVCCV? Or do all roots generally have the same phonotactics?
Well, I know a sort-of rule in English [probably not a rule so much as an accident probably] in that given an initial dental fricative, the voiced [D] only appears in pronouns (the, that, they...) and the voiceless [T] in all other parts of speech (thin, thigh, think...). Anyway, your CVCVC-noun/CVCCV-verb constraints seem entirely plausible... Especially if you reconstruct that as originally CVC roots with fossilized -VC nominalizing suffices and -CV verbalizing suffices, say. *Muke!

Reply

John Cowan <cowan@...>