BMO  +  49387 Thu, 07 Oct 04 05:22 PM a word is made of three parts, prefix; root, stem, or base; and suffix. precisely is pre + cise + ly (all three, prefix, root and suffix) concise is con + cise (prefix and root) scissors - cise (root) so a word MAY be made of three elements. correct? are root, stem and base all the same? BMO Joined on Tue, Aug 17 2004 Full Member 164

	Mister Micawber  +  49445 Thu, 07 Oct 04 11:44 PM I quote Trask: 'A root is the simplest form of a lexical morpheme, from which all other forms are built up. For example, the Latin verb meaning love has the root 'am-'; from this are formed the various stems, such as present 'ama-' and perfect 'amav-', from which in turn are constructed complete word-forms.' 'Base - the item to which an affix is added.' To me, that suggests that a base is a vaguer word including the other two-- it seems a more useful word to refer to what is actually being used as a stem or root in a particular case. Mister Micawber Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004 Yokohama Veteran Member 26,613 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.' Verbs, Affix, Morphemes

	PASTEL  +  49639 Sat, 09 Oct 04 07:44 PM A word is made of three parts, prefix; root, stem, or base; and suffix. Not really. For example, the and banana. (1)precisely is pre + cise + ly (all three, prefix, root and suffix) (2)concise is con + cise (prefix and root) (3)scissors - cise (root) (1)Correct. 'Cise' is a bound base or you say bound base which need to be conjointed with other morphemes, that is, they can't form words themselves. 'Cise' is not a word. You need to attach a prefix 'pre.' (2)Correct. (3)From Online Etymology Dictionary c.1384, sisoures, from O.Fr. cisoires (pl.) "shears," from V.L. *cisoria (pl.) "cutting instrument," from *cisus (in compounds such as L. excisus, pp. of excidere "to cutout"), ult. from L. cædere "to cut." In Scotland, shears answers for all sizes; but in England generally that word is used only for those too large to be worked by one hand. Spelling with sc- is 16c., from influence of M.L. scissor "tailor," from L. "carver, cutter," from pp. stem of scindere "to split." Sense in wrestling is from 1904. The verb scissor "to cur with scissors" is recorded from 1612; in the wrestling sense it is attested from 1968. so a word MAY be made of three elements. correct? You COULD say that. are root, stem and base all the same? No. Both root and stem belong to the catagory of base morpheme. Root is called when all of the affixes are deleted. Eg. nation Stem is called when the last affix is deleted. The examples could be very confusing though. Here is the link, you may find it useful. http://www.ling.udel.edu/arena/morphology.html Does that help? Pastel PASTEL Joined on Thu, Jul 1 2004 Regular Member 547 Verbs, Spelling, Affix, Morphemes, Morphology

	BMO  +  50511 Fri, 15 Oct 04 08:34 AM thanks. let's take underling for example, under- is a prefix, -ling is a suffix, so where is the root, base, or stem? BMO

	Mister Micawber  +  50523 Fri, 15 Oct 04 11:38 AM Interesting supposition, BMO, but according to my sources, the root is 'under' (adv for 'in a state of subjection) + '-ling' (suffix for 'person concerned with'). '-Ling' has been added to nouns ('nestling'), verbs ('changeling', and adjectives ('darling' -- from 'dear') as well as adverbs. Mister Micawber Verbs, Nouns, Adverbs

	Mister Micawber  +  201798 Tue, 28 Feb 06 11:54 AM Affix = prefix or suffix.  Ir of irritable appears to be neither, at least in English, as it comes from L. irritatus, from pp. stem of irritare 'excite, provoke.' Mister Micawber Affix