NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Null morpheme

In morpheme-based morphology, a null morpheme is a morpheme that is realized by a phonologically null affix (an empty string of phonological segments). In simpler terms, a null morpheme is an "invisible" affix. It's also called zero morpheme; the process of adding a null morpheme is called null affixation, null derivation or zero derivation. The concept was first used over two thousand years ago by Pāṇini in his Sanskrit grammar. (Some linguists object to the notion of a null morpheme, since it sets up (they say) an unverifiable distinction between a "null" or "zero" element, and nothing at all.) For other uses, see Morphology. ... In morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest lingual unit that carries a semantic interpretation. ... Phonology (Greek phonÄ“ = voice/sound and logos = word/speech), is a subfield of linguistics which studies the sound system of a specific language (or languages). ... Look up affix in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Indian postage stamp depicting (2004), with the implication that he used (à¤ªà¤¾à¤£à¤¿à¤¨à¤¿; IPA ) was an ancient Indian grammarian from Gandhara (traditionally 520â€“460 BC, but estimates range from the 7th to 4th centuries BC). ... Sanskrit ( , for short ) is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India. ... For the rules of English grammar, see English grammar and Disputes in English grammar. ...

The null morpheme is represented as either the figure zero (0), the empty set symbol ø, or its variant Ø. The empty set is the set containing no elements. ...

Examples in English include hiatus and co-operation. Look up hiatus in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The existence of a null morpheme in a word can also be theorized by contrast with other forms of the same word showing alternate morphemes. For example, the singular number of English nouns is shown by a null morpheme that contrasts with the plural morpheme -s. For other uses, see Word (disambiguation). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... In linguistics, a noun or noun substantive is a lexical category which is defined in terms of how its members combine with other grammatical kinds of expressions. ...

In addition, there are some cases in English where a null morpheme indicates plurality in nouns that take on irregular plurals.

Also, a null morpheme marks the present tense of verbs in all forms but the third person singular: It has been suggested that Verbal agreement be merged into this article or section. ...

According to some linguists' view, it's also a null morpheme that turns some English adjectives into verbs of the kind of to clean, to slow, to warm. Null derivation, also known as conversion if the word class changes, is very common in English. In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun (called the adjectives subject), giving more information about what the noun or pronoun refers to. ... A process of word formation where a word is created from another word without any change in its form (for example no derivational affixes are involved). ... In grammar, a part of speech or word class is defined as the role that a word (or sometimes a phrase) plays in a sentence. ...

In languages that show the above distinctions, it's quite common to employ null affixation to (not) mark singular number, present tense and third persons (English is unusual in its marking of the third person singular with a non-zero morpheme, by contrast with a null morpheme for others). It's also frequent to find null affixation for the least-marked cases (the nominative in nominative-accusative languages, and the absolutive in ergative-absolutive languages). Markedness is a linguistics concept that developed out of the Prague School (also known as the Prague linguistic circle). ... In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun indicates its grammatical function in a greater phrase or clause; such as the role of subject, of direct object, or of possessor. ... The nominative case is a grammatical case for a noun, which generally marks the subject of a verb, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... In ergative-absolutive languages, the absolutive is the grammatical case used to mark both the subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb. ... An ergative-absolutive language (or simply ergative) is one that treats the agent of transitive verbs distinctly from the subject of intransitive verbs and the object of transitive verbs. ...

In most languages of the world these are the affixes that are realized as null morphemes. But in some cases roots may alse be realized as these. For instance, Russian word вы-Ø-ну-ть (vynut', to take out) consists of one prefix (вы-), one zero root (-Ø-), one suffix (-ну-), and one postfix (-ть). The root is the primary lexical unit of a word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents. ... In linguistics, a prefix is a type of affix that precedes the morphemes to which it can attach. ... The root is the primary lexical unit of a word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents. ... It has been suggested that Ending (linguistics) be merged into this article or section. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Suffix. ...

A basic radical element plus a null morpheme is not the same as an uninflected word, though usage may make those equal in practice. In the context of linguistic morphology, an uninflected word is a word that has no morphological marks (inflection) such as affixes, Umlaut, Ablaut, consonant gradation, etc. ...

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