Arabic "expanded" roots

[Dr. John E. McLaughlin]

Wouldn't a more universally understood terminology for the Semitic (using
Hebrew) b-r-' versus bara' be to call the "triconsonantal root" the "root"
(i.e., a phonological meaning-carrying form that is incapable of being
divided into further morphemes) and the "expanded root" the "stem" (i.e., a
polymorphemic or monomorphemic form consisting only of root(s) and zero or
more derivational morpheme(s) that is ready for inflection)?  I'm not a
Semiticist, so I'm not so familiar with the terms used in traditional
Semitic (or Afro-Asiatic) linguistics, but as far as universal linguistic
terms "root" and "stem" seem to be the proper words to use.

John E. McLaughlin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
mclasutt at brigham.net

Program Director
Utah State University On-Line Linguistics
http://english.usu.edu/lingnet

English Department
3200 Old Main Hill
Utah State University
Logan, UT  84322-3200

(435) 797-2738 (voice)
(435) 797-3797 (fax)

> -----Original Message-----
> Sent: Thursday, March 02, 2000 8:51 PM
> Subject: Re: Arabic "expanded" roots

> At 08:39 PM 3/1/00 +0100, Stefan Georg wrote:

>> I confess that I don't know what an "expanded" variant of an Arabic root
>> is. What I do know, however, is that *every* Arabic verb form has vowels.

> That is what I meant.  I do not know the correct terminology for
> differentiating between the "pure" triconsonantal root and the actually
> spoken forms that, naturally, have vowels.

> --------------
> May the peace of God be with you.         sarima at ix.netcom.com