An exponent is a
phonological
Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often prefer ...
manifestation of a
morphosyntactic
In linguistics, morphology is the study of words, including the principles by which they are formed, and how they relate to one another within a language. Most approaches to morphology investigate the structure of words in terms of morphemes, wh ...
property. In non-technical language, it is the expression of one or more grammatical properties by sound. There are several kinds of exponents:
*Identity
*Affixation
*Reduplication
*Internal modification
*Subtraction
Identity
The identity exponent is both simple and common: it has no phonological manifestation at all.
An example in English:
: DEER +
PLURAL → deer
Affixation
Affixation is the addition of an
affix
In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. The main two categories are Morphological derivation, derivational and inflectional affixes. Derivational affixes, such as ''un-'', ''-ation' ...
(such as a
prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed.
Prefixes, like other affixes, can b ...
,
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...
or
infix
An infix is an affix inserted inside a word stem (an existing word or the core of a family of words). It contrasts with '' adfix,'' a rare term for an affix attached to the outside of a stem, such as a prefix or suffix.
When marking text for ...
) to a word.
Example in English:
: ''want'' +
PAST → ''wanted''
Reduplication
Reduplication
In linguistics, reduplication is a Morphology (linguistics), morphological process in which the Root (linguistics), root or Stem (linguistics), stem of a word, part of that, or the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change.
The cla ...
is the repetition of part of a word.
An example in
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
:
: दा ''dā'' ("give") +
PRESENT +
ACTIVE +
INDICATIVE +
FIRST PERSON +
SINGULAR → ददामि '' dadāmi'' (the ''da'' at the beginning is from reduplication of ''dā'' that involves a vowel change, a characteristic of
class 3 verbs in Sanskrit)
Internal modification
There are several types of internal modification. An internal modification may be
segmental, meaning it changes a sound in the root.
An example in English:
: STINK +
PAST = stank (i becomes a)
An internal modification might be a
suprasegmental
In linguistics, prosody () is the study of elements of speech, including intonation, stress, rhythm and loudness, that occur simultaneously with individual phonetic segments: vowels and consonants. Often, prosody specifically refers to such ele ...
modification. An example would be a change in
pitch or
stress.
An example of the latter in English (acute accent indicates stress):
: RECÓRD +
NOUN = récord
Subtraction
Subtraction is the removal of a sound or a group of sounds.
An example in French:
: OEUF /œf/ ("egg") +
PLURAL = œufs /ø/ (final f is lost)
References
Linguistic morphology
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