Examples of words that are monomorphemic in English, but polymorphemic in other languages












2














the title pretty much says it. I'm looking for words that are monomorphemic in English - preferably basic words of natural kinds such as star, water, tree, grass etc - but polymorphemic in other languages. It would be great if you could then also name the individual morphemes of the words.



Why am I interested in this? I'm currently writing a paper in which I want to criticize Jerry Fodor's thesis that there is a "language of thought" (call it "Mentalese") that is universal to all humans and prior to all public languages. He upholds a kind of linguistic atomism in which the meaning of a phrase - or in this case, a thought -is derived from the meaning of its basic constituents - in this case, its basic concepts. Fodor argues that basic concepts are those concepts that are expressed by monomorphemic names for individuals and kinds (like the above examples). He exclusively uses English as an example, however. If I can provide some examples of words that would be monomorphemic in English and thus very good candidates for being basic concepts, but are formed out of multiple morphemes in other languages, then I can argue that Fodor either cannot say anything substantial on what basic conepts are, or that he must admit that the language we speak shapes the way we think, a thesis he admantly rejects.



Since I only know German and English, I would be very thankful for examples.



Julian










share|improve this question







New contributor




Julian Gricksch is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.




















  • You can also look for words that are polymorphemic in English but monomorphemic in other languages. The demonstration will be more rigorous showing some arbitrary in the word formation as it was stated by Saussure.
    – amegnunsen
    4 hours ago










  • Basic colour is a great indicator for this - "pink" is monomorphemic in English, but a derivative of powder "粉" and red "紅" in Chinese. Conversely, "azzurro" in Italian would be "sky blue" in English (although azure is possible).
    – Michaelyus
    4 hours ago










  • What about words that are etymologically polymorphic, but now appear in monomorphic form? For instance, "phone" is derived from "telephone", "piano" is derived from "pianoforte", etc.
    – Acccumulation
    8 mins ago
















2














the title pretty much says it. I'm looking for words that are monomorphemic in English - preferably basic words of natural kinds such as star, water, tree, grass etc - but polymorphemic in other languages. It would be great if you could then also name the individual morphemes of the words.



Why am I interested in this? I'm currently writing a paper in which I want to criticize Jerry Fodor's thesis that there is a "language of thought" (call it "Mentalese") that is universal to all humans and prior to all public languages. He upholds a kind of linguistic atomism in which the meaning of a phrase - or in this case, a thought -is derived from the meaning of its basic constituents - in this case, its basic concepts. Fodor argues that basic concepts are those concepts that are expressed by monomorphemic names for individuals and kinds (like the above examples). He exclusively uses English as an example, however. If I can provide some examples of words that would be monomorphemic in English and thus very good candidates for being basic concepts, but are formed out of multiple morphemes in other languages, then I can argue that Fodor either cannot say anything substantial on what basic conepts are, or that he must admit that the language we speak shapes the way we think, a thesis he admantly rejects.



Since I only know German and English, I would be very thankful for examples.



Julian










share|improve this question







New contributor




Julian Gricksch is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.




















  • You can also look for words that are polymorphemic in English but monomorphemic in other languages. The demonstration will be more rigorous showing some arbitrary in the word formation as it was stated by Saussure.
    – amegnunsen
    4 hours ago










  • Basic colour is a great indicator for this - "pink" is monomorphemic in English, but a derivative of powder "粉" and red "紅" in Chinese. Conversely, "azzurro" in Italian would be "sky blue" in English (although azure is possible).
    – Michaelyus
    4 hours ago










  • What about words that are etymologically polymorphic, but now appear in monomorphic form? For instance, "phone" is derived from "telephone", "piano" is derived from "pianoforte", etc.
    – Acccumulation
    8 mins ago














2












2








2







the title pretty much says it. I'm looking for words that are monomorphemic in English - preferably basic words of natural kinds such as star, water, tree, grass etc - but polymorphemic in other languages. It would be great if you could then also name the individual morphemes of the words.



Why am I interested in this? I'm currently writing a paper in which I want to criticize Jerry Fodor's thesis that there is a "language of thought" (call it "Mentalese") that is universal to all humans and prior to all public languages. He upholds a kind of linguistic atomism in which the meaning of a phrase - or in this case, a thought -is derived from the meaning of its basic constituents - in this case, its basic concepts. Fodor argues that basic concepts are those concepts that are expressed by monomorphemic names for individuals and kinds (like the above examples). He exclusively uses English as an example, however. If I can provide some examples of words that would be monomorphemic in English and thus very good candidates for being basic concepts, but are formed out of multiple morphemes in other languages, then I can argue that Fodor either cannot say anything substantial on what basic conepts are, or that he must admit that the language we speak shapes the way we think, a thesis he admantly rejects.



Since I only know German and English, I would be very thankful for examples.



Julian










share|improve this question







New contributor




Julian Gricksch is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.











the title pretty much says it. I'm looking for words that are monomorphemic in English - preferably basic words of natural kinds such as star, water, tree, grass etc - but polymorphemic in other languages. It would be great if you could then also name the individual morphemes of the words.



Why am I interested in this? I'm currently writing a paper in which I want to criticize Jerry Fodor's thesis that there is a "language of thought" (call it "Mentalese") that is universal to all humans and prior to all public languages. He upholds a kind of linguistic atomism in which the meaning of a phrase - or in this case, a thought -is derived from the meaning of its basic constituents - in this case, its basic concepts. Fodor argues that basic concepts are those concepts that are expressed by monomorphemic names for individuals and kinds (like the above examples). He exclusively uses English as an example, however. If I can provide some examples of words that would be monomorphemic in English and thus very good candidates for being basic concepts, but are formed out of multiple morphemes in other languages, then I can argue that Fodor either cannot say anything substantial on what basic conepts are, or that he must admit that the language we speak shapes the way we think, a thesis he admantly rejects.



Since I only know German and English, I would be very thankful for examples.



Julian







morphology philosophy-of-language morphemes






share|improve this question







New contributor




Julian Gricksch is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.











share|improve this question







New contributor




Julian Gricksch is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









share|improve this question




share|improve this question






New contributor




Julian Gricksch is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









asked 5 hours ago









Julian Gricksch

111




111




New contributor




Julian Gricksch is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.





New contributor





Julian Gricksch is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.






Julian Gricksch is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.












  • You can also look for words that are polymorphemic in English but monomorphemic in other languages. The demonstration will be more rigorous showing some arbitrary in the word formation as it was stated by Saussure.
    – amegnunsen
    4 hours ago










  • Basic colour is a great indicator for this - "pink" is monomorphemic in English, but a derivative of powder "粉" and red "紅" in Chinese. Conversely, "azzurro" in Italian would be "sky blue" in English (although azure is possible).
    – Michaelyus
    4 hours ago










  • What about words that are etymologically polymorphic, but now appear in monomorphic form? For instance, "phone" is derived from "telephone", "piano" is derived from "pianoforte", etc.
    – Acccumulation
    8 mins ago


















  • You can also look for words that are polymorphemic in English but monomorphemic in other languages. The demonstration will be more rigorous showing some arbitrary in the word formation as it was stated by Saussure.
    – amegnunsen
    4 hours ago










  • Basic colour is a great indicator for this - "pink" is monomorphemic in English, but a derivative of powder "粉" and red "紅" in Chinese. Conversely, "azzurro" in Italian would be "sky blue" in English (although azure is possible).
    – Michaelyus
    4 hours ago










  • What about words that are etymologically polymorphic, but now appear in monomorphic form? For instance, "phone" is derived from "telephone", "piano" is derived from "pianoforte", etc.
    – Acccumulation
    8 mins ago
















You can also look for words that are polymorphemic in English but monomorphemic in other languages. The demonstration will be more rigorous showing some arbitrary in the word formation as it was stated by Saussure.
– amegnunsen
4 hours ago




You can also look for words that are polymorphemic in English but monomorphemic in other languages. The demonstration will be more rigorous showing some arbitrary in the word formation as it was stated by Saussure.
– amegnunsen
4 hours ago












Basic colour is a great indicator for this - "pink" is monomorphemic in English, but a derivative of powder "粉" and red "紅" in Chinese. Conversely, "azzurro" in Italian would be "sky blue" in English (although azure is possible).
– Michaelyus
4 hours ago




Basic colour is a great indicator for this - "pink" is monomorphemic in English, but a derivative of powder "粉" and red "紅" in Chinese. Conversely, "azzurro" in Italian would be "sky blue" in English (although azure is possible).
– Michaelyus
4 hours ago












What about words that are etymologically polymorphic, but now appear in monomorphic form? For instance, "phone" is derived from "telephone", "piano" is derived from "pianoforte", etc.
– Acccumulation
8 mins ago




What about words that are etymologically polymorphic, but now appear in monomorphic form? For instance, "phone" is derived from "telephone", "piano" is derived from "pianoforte", etc.
– Acccumulation
8 mins ago










3 Answers
3






active

oldest

votes


















1














One easy source for this is words that used to be polymorphemic, but fossilized by the time they reached English.



For example, "desire", "depend", "destroy", "descend", and "delete" are irreducible in English: there are no verbs *sire, *pend, *stroy, *scend, and *lete. However, in Latin, de- was a productive derivational prefix meaning "down, from, away", and all those words can be analyzed further: the base morphemes mean "star", "hang", "build", "climb", and "smear", respectively. All of these came from Latin through Romance to French and then to English, and by the time they reached English their original derivation was lost.



Many recent loanwords are the same way, though those don't illustrate your point as well. For example, "Inuit" and "Bantu" both mean "the people", and can be decomposed into "person" plus a plural marker (inuk + -it and ba- + ntu).



P.S. Well, okay, "sire" is an English verb, but it's unrelated. The point stands.






share|improve this answer





















  • dictionary.com/browse/pend
    – Acccumulation
    11 mins ago



















1














As I understand your interest, you don't need the relationship to be English (monomorphemic) to Other (polymorphemic), it works just as well if you have English being the polymorphemic example and Other being the monomorphemic example. North Saami [gabba] is "all-white reindeer" – there are other words for various coloring, sexes and ages of reindeer, also numerous terms describing states of snow. This is described in a paper "Diversity in Saami terminology for reindeer, snow, and ice" by Ole H. Magga which used to be out there in the wild but is now behind the paywall. He also jievja 'light, nearly white', čuoivvat 'yellowish grey', but also čáhhpat 'black', which is actually polymorphemic (the root "black" is /čáhhpV/ – you would need to investigate proposed examples, but gabba, jievja, čuoivvat are good enough).



So unless we declare that English is The Basic Language, "all-white reindeer" is a basic concept in human language which then implies, given Fodor's general theory, that humans have genetic knowledge that there are reindeer.






share|improve this answer





























    0














    An example that springs to mind: English "love" vs. Danish "kærlighed", which is actually tri-morphemic, consisting of "kær" (dear), "-lig" (derivational morpheme creating adjectives, thus "kærlig" = "loving") and "-hed" (derivational morpheme creating nouns from adjectives, like English "-ness").






    share|improve this answer





















      Your Answer








      StackExchange.ready(function() {
      var channelOptions = {
      tags: "".split(" "),
      id: "312"
      };
      initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

      StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
      // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
      if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
      StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
      createEditor();
      });
      }
      else {
      createEditor();
      }
      });

      function createEditor() {
      StackExchange.prepareEditor({
      heartbeatType: 'answer',
      autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
      convertImagesToLinks: false,
      noModals: true,
      showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
      reputationToPostImages: null,
      bindNavPrevention: true,
      postfix: "",
      imageUploader: {
      brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
      contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
      allowUrls: true
      },
      noCode: true, onDemand: true,
      discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
      ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
      });


      }
      });






      Julian Gricksch is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.










      draft saved

      draft discarded


















      StackExchange.ready(
      function () {
      StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2flinguistics.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f30141%2fexamples-of-words-that-are-monomorphemic-in-english-but-polymorphemic-in-other%23new-answer', 'question_page');
      }
      );

      Post as a guest















      Required, but never shown

























      3 Answers
      3






      active

      oldest

      votes








      3 Answers
      3






      active

      oldest

      votes









      active

      oldest

      votes






      active

      oldest

      votes









      1














      One easy source for this is words that used to be polymorphemic, but fossilized by the time they reached English.



      For example, "desire", "depend", "destroy", "descend", and "delete" are irreducible in English: there are no verbs *sire, *pend, *stroy, *scend, and *lete. However, in Latin, de- was a productive derivational prefix meaning "down, from, away", and all those words can be analyzed further: the base morphemes mean "star", "hang", "build", "climb", and "smear", respectively. All of these came from Latin through Romance to French and then to English, and by the time they reached English their original derivation was lost.



      Many recent loanwords are the same way, though those don't illustrate your point as well. For example, "Inuit" and "Bantu" both mean "the people", and can be decomposed into "person" plus a plural marker (inuk + -it and ba- + ntu).



      P.S. Well, okay, "sire" is an English verb, but it's unrelated. The point stands.






      share|improve this answer





















      • dictionary.com/browse/pend
        – Acccumulation
        11 mins ago
















      1














      One easy source for this is words that used to be polymorphemic, but fossilized by the time they reached English.



      For example, "desire", "depend", "destroy", "descend", and "delete" are irreducible in English: there are no verbs *sire, *pend, *stroy, *scend, and *lete. However, in Latin, de- was a productive derivational prefix meaning "down, from, away", and all those words can be analyzed further: the base morphemes mean "star", "hang", "build", "climb", and "smear", respectively. All of these came from Latin through Romance to French and then to English, and by the time they reached English their original derivation was lost.



      Many recent loanwords are the same way, though those don't illustrate your point as well. For example, "Inuit" and "Bantu" both mean "the people", and can be decomposed into "person" plus a plural marker (inuk + -it and ba- + ntu).



      P.S. Well, okay, "sire" is an English verb, but it's unrelated. The point stands.






      share|improve this answer





















      • dictionary.com/browse/pend
        – Acccumulation
        11 mins ago














      1












      1








      1






      One easy source for this is words that used to be polymorphemic, but fossilized by the time they reached English.



      For example, "desire", "depend", "destroy", "descend", and "delete" are irreducible in English: there are no verbs *sire, *pend, *stroy, *scend, and *lete. However, in Latin, de- was a productive derivational prefix meaning "down, from, away", and all those words can be analyzed further: the base morphemes mean "star", "hang", "build", "climb", and "smear", respectively. All of these came from Latin through Romance to French and then to English, and by the time they reached English their original derivation was lost.



      Many recent loanwords are the same way, though those don't illustrate your point as well. For example, "Inuit" and "Bantu" both mean "the people", and can be decomposed into "person" plus a plural marker (inuk + -it and ba- + ntu).



      P.S. Well, okay, "sire" is an English verb, but it's unrelated. The point stands.






      share|improve this answer












      One easy source for this is words that used to be polymorphemic, but fossilized by the time they reached English.



      For example, "desire", "depend", "destroy", "descend", and "delete" are irreducible in English: there are no verbs *sire, *pend, *stroy, *scend, and *lete. However, in Latin, de- was a productive derivational prefix meaning "down, from, away", and all those words can be analyzed further: the base morphemes mean "star", "hang", "build", "climb", and "smear", respectively. All of these came from Latin through Romance to French and then to English, and by the time they reached English their original derivation was lost.



      Many recent loanwords are the same way, though those don't illustrate your point as well. For example, "Inuit" and "Bantu" both mean "the people", and can be decomposed into "person" plus a plural marker (inuk + -it and ba- + ntu).



      P.S. Well, okay, "sire" is an English verb, but it's unrelated. The point stands.







      share|improve this answer












      share|improve this answer



      share|improve this answer










      answered 4 hours ago









      Draconis

      9,3871339




      9,3871339












      • dictionary.com/browse/pend
        – Acccumulation
        11 mins ago


















      • dictionary.com/browse/pend
        – Acccumulation
        11 mins ago
















      dictionary.com/browse/pend
      – Acccumulation
      11 mins ago




      dictionary.com/browse/pend
      – Acccumulation
      11 mins ago











      1














      As I understand your interest, you don't need the relationship to be English (monomorphemic) to Other (polymorphemic), it works just as well if you have English being the polymorphemic example and Other being the monomorphemic example. North Saami [gabba] is "all-white reindeer" – there are other words for various coloring, sexes and ages of reindeer, also numerous terms describing states of snow. This is described in a paper "Diversity in Saami terminology for reindeer, snow, and ice" by Ole H. Magga which used to be out there in the wild but is now behind the paywall. He also jievja 'light, nearly white', čuoivvat 'yellowish grey', but also čáhhpat 'black', which is actually polymorphemic (the root "black" is /čáhhpV/ – you would need to investigate proposed examples, but gabba, jievja, čuoivvat are good enough).



      So unless we declare that English is The Basic Language, "all-white reindeer" is a basic concept in human language which then implies, given Fodor's general theory, that humans have genetic knowledge that there are reindeer.






      share|improve this answer


























        1














        As I understand your interest, you don't need the relationship to be English (monomorphemic) to Other (polymorphemic), it works just as well if you have English being the polymorphemic example and Other being the monomorphemic example. North Saami [gabba] is "all-white reindeer" – there are other words for various coloring, sexes and ages of reindeer, also numerous terms describing states of snow. This is described in a paper "Diversity in Saami terminology for reindeer, snow, and ice" by Ole H. Magga which used to be out there in the wild but is now behind the paywall. He also jievja 'light, nearly white', čuoivvat 'yellowish grey', but also čáhhpat 'black', which is actually polymorphemic (the root "black" is /čáhhpV/ – you would need to investigate proposed examples, but gabba, jievja, čuoivvat are good enough).



        So unless we declare that English is The Basic Language, "all-white reindeer" is a basic concept in human language which then implies, given Fodor's general theory, that humans have genetic knowledge that there are reindeer.






        share|improve this answer
























          1












          1








          1






          As I understand your interest, you don't need the relationship to be English (monomorphemic) to Other (polymorphemic), it works just as well if you have English being the polymorphemic example and Other being the monomorphemic example. North Saami [gabba] is "all-white reindeer" – there are other words for various coloring, sexes and ages of reindeer, also numerous terms describing states of snow. This is described in a paper "Diversity in Saami terminology for reindeer, snow, and ice" by Ole H. Magga which used to be out there in the wild but is now behind the paywall. He also jievja 'light, nearly white', čuoivvat 'yellowish grey', but also čáhhpat 'black', which is actually polymorphemic (the root "black" is /čáhhpV/ – you would need to investigate proposed examples, but gabba, jievja, čuoivvat are good enough).



          So unless we declare that English is The Basic Language, "all-white reindeer" is a basic concept in human language which then implies, given Fodor's general theory, that humans have genetic knowledge that there are reindeer.






          share|improve this answer












          As I understand your interest, you don't need the relationship to be English (monomorphemic) to Other (polymorphemic), it works just as well if you have English being the polymorphemic example and Other being the monomorphemic example. North Saami [gabba] is "all-white reindeer" – there are other words for various coloring, sexes and ages of reindeer, also numerous terms describing states of snow. This is described in a paper "Diversity in Saami terminology for reindeer, snow, and ice" by Ole H. Magga which used to be out there in the wild but is now behind the paywall. He also jievja 'light, nearly white', čuoivvat 'yellowish grey', but also čáhhpat 'black', which is actually polymorphemic (the root "black" is /čáhhpV/ – you would need to investigate proposed examples, but gabba, jievja, čuoivvat are good enough).



          So unless we declare that English is The Basic Language, "all-white reindeer" is a basic concept in human language which then implies, given Fodor's general theory, that humans have genetic knowledge that there are reindeer.







          share|improve this answer












          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer










          answered 2 hours ago









          user6726

          33.8k12465




          33.8k12465























              0














              An example that springs to mind: English "love" vs. Danish "kærlighed", which is actually tri-morphemic, consisting of "kær" (dear), "-lig" (derivational morpheme creating adjectives, thus "kærlig" = "loving") and "-hed" (derivational morpheme creating nouns from adjectives, like English "-ness").






              share|improve this answer


























                0














                An example that springs to mind: English "love" vs. Danish "kærlighed", which is actually tri-morphemic, consisting of "kær" (dear), "-lig" (derivational morpheme creating adjectives, thus "kærlig" = "loving") and "-hed" (derivational morpheme creating nouns from adjectives, like English "-ness").






                share|improve this answer
























                  0












                  0








                  0






                  An example that springs to mind: English "love" vs. Danish "kærlighed", which is actually tri-morphemic, consisting of "kær" (dear), "-lig" (derivational morpheme creating adjectives, thus "kærlig" = "loving") and "-hed" (derivational morpheme creating nouns from adjectives, like English "-ness").






                  share|improve this answer












                  An example that springs to mind: English "love" vs. Danish "kærlighed", which is actually tri-morphemic, consisting of "kær" (dear), "-lig" (derivational morpheme creating adjectives, thus "kærlig" = "loving") and "-hed" (derivational morpheme creating nouns from adjectives, like English "-ness").







                  share|improve this answer












                  share|improve this answer



                  share|improve this answer










                  answered 3 hours ago









                  pinnerup

                  1143




                  1143






















                      Julian Gricksch is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.










                      draft saved

                      draft discarded


















                      Julian Gricksch is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.













                      Julian Gricksch is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.












                      Julian Gricksch is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
















                      Thanks for contributing an answer to Linguistics Stack Exchange!


                      • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

                      But avoid



                      • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

                      • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


                      To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.





                      Some of your past answers have not been well-received, and you're in danger of being blocked from answering.


                      Please pay close attention to the following guidance:


                      • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

                      But avoid



                      • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

                      • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


                      To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




                      draft saved


                      draft discarded














                      StackExchange.ready(
                      function () {
                      StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2flinguistics.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f30141%2fexamples-of-words-that-are-monomorphemic-in-english-but-polymorphemic-in-other%23new-answer', 'question_page');
                      }
                      );

                      Post as a guest















                      Required, but never shown





















































                      Required, but never shown














                      Required, but never shown












                      Required, but never shown







                      Required, but never shown

































                      Required, but never shown














                      Required, but never shown












                      Required, but never shown







                      Required, but never shown







                      Popular posts from this blog

                      Eastern Orthodox Church

                      Understanding the information contained in the Deep Space Network XML data?

                      Zagreb