- When the suffix –ive is added to a monosyllabic root, the stress is on the root:
(-ive cannot bear stress)
e.g.) áct – áctive
However, in words with three or more syllables, we may see the stress fall-
ing
on the syllable before it (e.g. decísive, offénsive).
- If the syllable immediately before it is not heavy, move one more to the
left (e.g. négative, sédative), or even to one further left (e.g. génerative,
méditative).
- Eight inflectional suffixes do not have any effect on the stress.
-s (third per. Sing. Present) “she looks here’
-s (plural) “two cats”
-s (possessive) “cat’s tail”
-ed (past tense) “she looked here”
-en, -ed (past participle) “she has eaten”
-ing (progressive) “she is eating”
-er (comparative) “she shorter than you”
-est (superlative) “she is the shortest”
- Inflectional suffixes do not have any effect on the stress.
(i.e. the addition of these suffixes does not change the location of the stress).
But derivational suffixes have no such predictability:
stress-neutral : bóttom – bóttomless
stress-shifting : geógraphy – geográphic
stress-bearing : lémon – lemonáde
- p. 265-266
9.3 Morphological Basis of English Spelling
- Despite all these apparent variations and discrepancies, which violate one-to-
one phoneme-grapheme correspondences, English spelling reveals some use-
ful
lexical and morphophonemic information.
past tense -ed: tempted [ɪd] regular plural -s: cats [s]
sipped [t] dogs [z]
jogged [d] boxes [əz/ɪz]
morphophonemic allomorph
- Roots and stems maintain their spelling from word to word, despite their
differences in pronunciation due to full or reduced vowel alternations cor-
related with stress, as in:
- Vowels in some words alternate in stressed syllables of morphologically
related pairs, where the long vowel/diphthong is shortened when it
comes
three syllables from the end of the word:
- Roots and stems maintain their spelling from word to word, despite their
differences in pronunciation due to full or reduced vowel alternations cor
related with stress, as in:
- Vowels in some words alternate in stressed syllables of morphologically
related pairs, where the long vowel/diphthong is shortened when it
comes
three syllables from the end of the word:
- Trisyllabic laxing applied in
The vowel shortening in antepenultimate syllables due to the affix at-
tachment.
- The final consonant in prefixes borrowed from Latin assimilates to the initial
consonant of the stem:
negative prefix in- : im-balanced, im-possible, im-mature
“toward” ad- : ab-breviate, af-fect, al-lege, ap-point, ar-rive
“together” con- : com-bat, col-lect, cor-rect
“under” sub- : suf-fer, sug-gest, sup-port
- Other morphological base of English alternation:
postvocalic ‘g’ before final nasals /n/ and /m/ is silent – sign, paradigm
(signature, paradigmatic)
word final ‘b’ after ‘m’ -- bomb, limb (bombardment, limbic)
word final ‘n’ after ‘m’ -- damn, autumn (damnation, autumnal)
- Trisyllabic laxing applied in
The vowel shortening in antepenultimate syllables due to the affix at-
tachment.
- The final consonant in prefixes borrowed from Latin assimilates to the initial
consonant of the stem:
negative prefix in- : im-balanced, im-possible, im-mature
“toward” ad- : ab-breviate, af-fect, al-lege, ap-point, ar-rive
“together” con- : com-bat, col-lect, cor-rect
“under” sub- : suf-fer, sug-gest, sup-port
- Other morphological base of English alternation:
postvocalic ‘g’ before final nasals /n/ and /m/ is silent – sign, paradigm
(signature, paradigmatic)
word final ‘b’ after ‘m’ -- bomb, limb (bombardment, limbic)
word final ‘n’ after ‘m’ -- damn, autumn (damnation, autumnal)
