Free roots and stems
Many roots and stems are free forms. The root gain is a free morpheme; and the stem regain is a free form.
Bound roots and stems
According to a wide-spread misunderstanding, all roots and stems are free forms. However, no contradiction is involved in the notion of a bound root or stem; and indeed, many are bound.
Bound stems
A bound stem is one that does not constitute a free form and instead requires combination with another morpheme to constitute one. Depending on the category of the additional morpheme required, there are two kinds of bound stems:
Stems which require derivation or compounding
A stem which does not by itself represent a lexeme but only appears as part of more complex stems is a reliant stem. Such are known from parasynthesis.
Parasynthesis (German Zusammenbildung) s.s. is a process of word-formation which combines a stem A with a morpheme B as follows:
- B is a derivational operator or determinatum of a compound.
- A is a complex stem which does not represent a lexeme because it is bound to B or an element of its class. Consequently, it does neither constitute a free form nor inflect to constitute one.
Parasynthesis s.l. includes conversion beside compounding and derivation.
Examples of parasynthesis include the German compound [[Sauregurken]zeit] (sour:cucumber:time) ‘silly season’ and the Spanish derivate [[sietemes]ino] (seven:month:Sbvr:M) ‘baby born two months premature’. The base in these and other typical cases of parasynthesis is a phrase (saure Gurken and siete meses, resp.) which by the word-formation process is converted into a reliant stem. An example of parasynthesis s.l. is French [[embarqu]er] (in:ship:Inf) ‘embark’, whose base is the prepositional phrase em barque ‘in ship’.
Stems which require inflection
Stems which are bound in the sense of only constituting word forms if provided with inflection are typical of languages of the flexive type. Examples include the German verb stem erblüh- ‘(come into) blossom’ and the Latin noun stem adventu- ‘arrival’.
There are also stems which require either a process of word-formation or one of inflection to constitute a word form. German derived verb stems like vergess- ‘forget’ and beacht- ‘pay attention to’ are examples: they figure in the derivates vergesslich ‘forgetful’ and beachtlich ‘notable’ and in conjugated forms like vergessen ‘to forget’ and beachten ‘to pay attention to’.
Bound roots
Bound roots are classified by the same principle as bound stems.
Roots requiring derivation or compounding
English is rich in verb roots which only occur in combination with a prefix. The set includes roots of Germanic origin, as in believe and bereave, and the roots of Latin-Romance verbs like compel and dispel. The methodological problems of segmentation are discussed the next section.
Roots requiring inflection
Examples include the German bound verb root werf- ‘throw’ and the Latin bound noun root domino- ‘master’.