root (adj./n.)

A term often used in LINGUISTICS (and traditionally used in HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS) as part of a classification of the kinds of ELEMENT operating within the STRUCTURE of a WORD. A root is the BASE FORM of a WORD which cannot be further analyzed without total loss of identity. Putting this another way, it is that part of the word left when all the AFFIXES are removed. In the word meaningfulness, for example, removing -ing, -ful and -ness leaves the root mean. Roots (sometimes referred to as ‘radicals’) may be classified in several different ways. They may be ‘free’ MORPHEMES, such as mean (i.e. they can stand alone as a word), or they may be ‘bound’ morphemes, such as -ceive (e.g. receive, conceive, deceive). From another point of view, roots are sometimes classified as ‘simple’ (i.e. compositionally unanalysable in terms of morphemes) or ‘complex’/‘compound’ (i.e. certain combinations of simple root forms, as in blackbird, careful, etc.), though for the latter the term STEM is commonly used.

From a SEMANTIC point of view, the root generally carries the main component of MEANING in a word. From a historical viewpoint, the root is the earliest form of a word, though this information is not relevant to a SYNCHRONIC analysis (and may not always coincide with the results of it). The term root-inflected is sometimes applied to a type of language where the INFLECTIONS affect the internal PHONOLOGICAL structure of the root, as in Arabic, where roots are defined as a sequence of CONSONANTS (CvCvC), and variation in the intervening VOWELS signals such GRAMMATICAL differences as present v. past TENSE. By contrast, a language such as Chinese may be said to be root-isolating, i.e. the root morphemes are invariable, and grammatical relationships are signalled by other means, such as WORD-ORDER.

The furthest-back part of the TONGUE, opposite the PHARYNGEAL wall, not normally involved in the production of speech sounds; also called the radix (articulations may therefore be described as radical). It is, however, involved in advanced tongue root (ATR) articulation – a movement which expands the front–back diameter of the pharynx, used phonologically in some (e.g. African) languages as a factor in contrasts of VOWEL HARMONY. The opposite direction of movement is retracted tongue root (RTR).

In GENERATIVE GRAMMAR, the term is sometimes used to refer to the topmost NODE in a TREE diagram. In NON-LINEAR PHONOLOGY, the root node is the one which DOMINATES all other FEATURES in the HIERARCHY; for example in METRICAL PHONOLOGY, it refers to the topmost node in a metrical tree (R). In TRANSFORMATIONAL grammar it also refers to a type of transformation which applies only to full SENTENCE STRUCTURE and not to EMBEDDED sentences. A root transformation applies in the formation of YES–NO QUESTIONS, for instance, where the domain of application has to be the main CLAUSE (e.g. He said that there was trouble ⇒ Did he say that there was trouble?).