circumscription (n.)

In PROSODIC MORPHOLOGY, a term used to characterize a core principle of the approach: ‘prosodic circumscription’ asserts that the DOMAIN to which morphological operations apply is defined by prosodic criteria (as well as by the traditionally recognized morphological criteria). In AFFIXATION, for example, the operation of assigning a PREFIX to a BASE is traditionally carried out on purely grammatical grounds, whereas in prosodic circumscription the base form is delimited (circumscribed) prosodically. The notion makes it possible to give an account of such phenomena as the locus of INFIXATION in prosodic terms.