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Alpha Privative
An alpha privative or, rarely, privative a (from Latin ', from Ancient Greek ) is the prefix ''a-'' or ''an-'' (before vowels) that is used in Indo-European languages such as Sanskrit and Greek language, Greek and in words borrowed therefrom to express negation or absence, for example the English words of greek origin ''wiktionary:atypical, atypical'', ''wiktionary:anesthetic, anesthetic'', and ''wiktionary:analgesic, analgesic''. It is derived from a Proto-Indo-European language, Proto-Indo-European syllabic nasal *', the zero Indo-European ablaut, ablaut grade of the negation *', i.e. /n/ used as a vowel. For this reason, it usually appears as ' before vowels (e.g. ''illiteracy, an-alphabetism'', ''anesthesia, an-esthesia'', ''anarchy (word), an-archy''). It shares the same root with the Greek prefix ' or ', in Greek or , that is also privative (e.g. '). It is not to be confused with, among other things, an copulative a, alpha copulative (e.g. ') or the prepositional compound (li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Privative
A privative, named from Latin language, Latin ''wikt:privare, privare'', "to deprive", is a particle (grammar), particle that negates or inverts the semantics, value of the root word, stem of the word. In Indo-European languages many privatives are prefix (linguistics), prefixes; but they can also be suffixes, or more independent elements. Privative prefixes In English language, English there are three primary privative prefixes, all cognate from Proto-Indo-European: *'':wikt:un-#Etymology 1, un-'' from West Germanic languages, West Germanic, from Proto-Germanic; e.g. ''un''precedented, ''un''believable *'':wikt:in-, in-'' from Latin language, Latin; e.g. ''in''capable, ''in''articulate. *'':wikt:a-#Etymology 5, a-'', called alpha privative, from Ancient Greek '':wikt:ἀ-, '', '':wikt:ἀν-, '', from Proto-Hellenic *ə-; e.g. ''a''pathetic, ''a''biogenesis. These all stem from a Proto-Indo-European language, PIE syllabic nasal privative *''n̥-'', the zero Indo-European ablaut, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Compound (linguistics)
In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word or sign) that consists of more than one stem. Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of word formation that creates compound lexemes. Compounding occurs when two or more words or signs are joined to make a longer word or sign. A compound that uses a space rather than a hyphen or concatenation is called an open compound or a spaced compound; the alternative is a closed compound. The meaning of the compound may be similar to or different from the meaning of its components in isolation. The component stems of a compound may be of the same part of speech—as in the case of the English word ''footpath'', composed of the two nouns ''foot'' and ''path''—or they may belong to different parts of speech, as in the case of the English word ''blackbird'', composed of the adjective ''black'' and the noun ''bird''. With very few exceptions, English compound words are stressed on their first compo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
