Definitions of word roots

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A root (or root word) is the core of a word that is irreducible into more meaningful elements.^[1] In morphology, a root is a morphologically simple unit which can be left bare or to which a prefix or a suffix can attach.^[2][3] The root word is the primary lexical unit of a word, and of a word family (this root is then called the base word), which carries aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents.
Content words in nearly all languages contain, and may consist only of, root morphemes. However, sometimes the term «root» is also used to describe the word without its inflectional endings, but with its lexical endings in place. For example, chatters has the inflectional root or lemma chatter, but the lexical root chat. Inflectional roots are often called stems, and a root in the stricter sense, a root morpheme, may be thought of as a monomorphemic stem.

The traditional definition allows roots to be either free morphemes or bound morphemes. Root morphemes are the building blocks for affixation and compounds. However, in polysynthetic languages with very high levels of inflectional morphology, the term «root» is generally synonymous with «free morpheme». Many such languages have a very restricted number of morphemes that can stand alone as a word: Yup’ik, for instance, has no more than two thousand.

The root is conventionally indicated using the mathematical symbol √; for instance, the Sanskrit root «√bhū-» means the root «bhū-«.

Examples[edit]

The root of a word is a unit of meaning (morpheme) and, as such, it is an abstraction, though it can usually be represented alphabetically as a word. For example, it can be said that the root of the English verb form running is run, or the root of the Spanish superlative adjective amplísimo is ampli-, since those words are derived from the root forms by simple suffixes that do not alter the roots in any way. In particular, English has very little inflection and a tendency to have words that are identical to their roots. But more complicated inflection, as well as other processes, can obscure the root; for example, the root of mice is mouse (still a valid word), and the root of interrupt is, arguably, rupt, which is not a word in English and only appears in derivational forms (such as disrupt, corrupt, rupture, etc.). The root rupt can be written as if it were a word, but it is not.

This distinction between the word as a unit of speech and the root as a unit of meaning is even more important in the case of languages where roots have many different forms when used in actual words, as is the case in Semitic languages. In these, roots (semitic roots) are formed by consonants alone, and speakers elaborate different words (belonging potentially to different parts of speech) from the root by inserting different vowels. For example, in Hebrew, the root ג-ד-ל g-d-l represents the idea of largeness, and from it we have gadol and gdola (masculine and feminine forms of the adjective «big»), gadal «he grew», higdil «he magnified» and magdelet «magnifier», along with many other words such as godel «size» and migdal «tower».

Roots and reconstructed roots can become the tools of etymology.^[4]

Secondary roots[edit]

Secondary roots are roots with changes in them, producing a new word with a slightly different meaning. In English, a rough equivalent would be to see conductor as a secondary root formed from the root to conduct. In abjad languages, the most familiar of which are Arabic and Hebrew, in which families of secondary roots are fundamental to the language, secondary roots are created by changes in the roots’ vowels, by adding or removing the long vowels a, i, u, e and o. (Notice that Arabic does not have the vowels e and o.) In addition, secondary roots can be created by prefixing (m−, t−), infixing (−t−), or suffixing (−i, and several others). There is no rule in these languages on how many secondary roots can be derived from a single root; some roots have few, but other roots have many, not all of which are necessarily in current use.

Consider the Arabic language:

• مركز [mrkz] or [markaza] meaning ‘centralized (masculine, singular)’, from [markaz] ‘centre’, from [rakaza] ‘plant into the earth, stick up (a lance)’ ( ر-ك-ز | r-k-z). This in turn has derived words مركزي [markaziy], meaning ‘central’, مركزية [markaziy:ah], meaning ‘centralism’ or ‘centralization’, and لامركزية, [la:markaziy:ah] ‘decentralization’^[5]
• أرجح [rjh] or [ta’arjaħa] meaning ‘oscillated (masculine, singular)’, from [‘urju:ħa] ‘swing (n)’, from [rajaħa] ‘weighed down, preponderated (masculine, singular)’ ( ر-ج-ح | r-j-ħ).
• محور [mhwr] or [tamaħwara] meaning ‘centred, focused (masculine, singular)’, from [mihwar] meaning ‘axis’, from [ħa:ra] ‘turned (masculine, singular)’ (ح-و-ر | h-w-r).
• مسخر [msxr], تمسخر [tamasxara] meaning ‘mocked, made fun (masculine, singular)’, from مسخرة [masxara] meaning ‘mockery’, from سخر [saxira] ‘mocked (masculine, singular)’ (derived from س-خ-ر[s-x-r]).»^[6] Similar cases may be found in other Semitic languages such as Hebrew, Syriac, Aramaic, Maltese language and to a lesser extent Amharic.

Similar cases occur in Hebrew, for example Israeli Hebrew מ-ק-מ‎ √m-q-m ‘locate’, which derives from Biblical Hebrew מקום‎ måqom ‘place’, whose root is ק-ו-מ‎ √q-w-m ‘stand’. A recent example introduced by the Academy of the Hebrew Language is מדרוג‎ midrúg ‘rating’, from מדרג‎ midrág, whose root is ד-ר-ג‎ √d-r-g ‘grade’.»^[6]

According to Ghil’ad Zuckermann, «this process is morphologically similar to the production of frequentative (iterative) verbs in Latin, for example:

• iactito ‘to toss about’ derives from iacto ‘to boast of, keep bringing up, harass, disturb, throw, cast, fling away’, which in turn derives from iacio ‘to throw, cast’ (from its past participle iactum).^[6]

Consider also Rabbinic Hebrew ת-ר-מ‎ √t-r-m ‘donate, contribute’ (Mishnah: T’rumoth 1:2: ‘separate priestly dues’), which derives from Biblical Hebrew תרומה‎ t’rūmå ‘contribution’, whose root is ר-ו-מ‎ √r-w-m ‘raise’; cf. Rabbinic Hebrew ת-ר-ע‎ √t-r-‘ ‘sound the trumpet, blow the horn’, from Biblical Hebrew תרועה‎ t’rū`å ‘shout, cry, loud sound, trumpet-call’, in turn from ר-ו-ע‎ √r-w-`.»^[6]
and it describes the suffix.

Category-neutral roots[edit]

Decompositional generative frameworks suggest that roots hold little grammatical information and can be considered «category-neutral».^[7] Category-neutral roots are roots without any inherent lexical category but with some conceptual content that becomes evident depending on the syntactic environment.^[7] The ways in which these roots gain lexical category are discussed in Distributed Morphology and the Exoskeletal Model.

Theories adopting a category-neutral approach have not, as of 2020, reached a consensus about whether these roots contain a semantic type but no argument structure,^[8] neither semantic type nor argument structure,^[9] or both semantic type and argument structure.^[10]

In support of the category-neutral approach, data from English indicates that the same underlying root appears as a noun and a verb — with or without overt morphology.^[7]

In Hebrew, the majority of roots consist of segmental consonants √CCC. Arad (2003) describes that the consonantal root is turned into a word due to pattern morphology. Thereby, the root is turned into a verb when put into a verbal environment where the head bears the «v» feature (the pattern).^[11]

Consider the root √š-m-n (ש-מ-נ).

Root √š-m-n (ש-מ-נ) in Hebrew^[11]

Pattern	Pronounced word	Gloss
CeCeC (n)	šemen	oil, grease
CaCCeCet (n)	šamenet	cream
CuCaC (n)	šuman	fat
CaCeC (adj)	šamen	fat
hiCCiC (v)	hišmin	grow fat/fatten
CiCCeC (n)	šimen	grease

Although all words vary semantically, the general meaning of a greasy, fatty material can be attributed to the root.

Furthermore, Arad states that there are two types of languages in terms of root interpretation. In languages like English, the root is assigned one interpretation whereas in languages like Hebrew, the root can form multiple interpretations depending on its environment. This occurrence suggests a difference in language acquisition between these two languages. English speakers would need to learn two roots in order to understand two different words whereas Hebrew speakers would learn one root for two or more words.^[11]

Root comparison between English and Hebrew (adapted from Syntactic Categorization of Roots^[7])

English Root	English Word	Hebrew Root	Hebrew Word	Gloss
√CREAM	cream	√š-m-n ש-מ-נ	šamenet	‘cream’
√FAT	fat	√š-m-n ש-מ-נ	šuman	‘fat’

Alexiadou and Lohndal (2017) advance the claim that languages have a typological scale when it comes to roots and their meanings and state that Greek lies in between Hebrew and English.^[12]

See also[edit]

• Lemma (morphology)
• Lexeme
• Morphological typology
• Morphology (linguistics)
• Phono-semantic matching
• Principal parts
• Proto-Indo-European root
• Radical (Chinese character) (this is more based upon a writing system than a spoken language)
• Semitic root
• Word family
• Word stem

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Virtual Salt Root words and prefixes
• Espindle — Greek and Latin Root Words

Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms

In English grammar and morphology, a root is a word or word element (in other words, a morpheme) from which other words grow, usually through the addition of prefixes and suffixes. Also called a root word.

In Greek and Latin Roots (2008), T. Rasinski et al. define root as «a semantic unit. This simply means that a root is a word part that means something. It is a group of letters with meaning.»

Etymology

From the Old English, «root»
Examples and Observations

• «Latin is the most common source of English root words; Greek and Old English are the two other major sources.
  «Some root words are whole words and others are word parts. Some root words have become free morphemes and can be used as separate words, but others cannot. For instance, cent comes from the Latin root word centum, meaning hundred. English treats the word as a root word that can be used independently and in combination with affixes, as in century, bicentennial and centipede. The words cosmopolitan, cosmic and microcosm come from the Greek root word kosmos, meaning universe; cosmos is also an independent root word in English.» (Gail Tompkins, Rod Campbell, David Green, and Carol Smith, Literacy for the 21st Century: A Balanced Approach. Pearson Australia, 2015)

Free Morphs and Bound Morphs

• «Because a root tells us more about the meaning of a word than anything else, the first thing we ask about a complex word is often: What is its root? Often a complex word has more than one root, as in blackbird. . . .
  «In our native and nativized vocabulary, roots can usually appear as independent words, for which reason they are called free morphs. This makes it particularly easy to find the roots of words like black-bird, re-fresh, and book-ish-ness. In Latin and Greek, roots most often do not occur as separate words: they are bound morphs, meaning they can only appear when tied to other components. For example, the root of concurrent is curr ‘run.’ which is not an independent word in English or even in Latin.»
  (Keith Denning, Brett Kessler, and William R. Leben. English Vocabulary Elements, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2007)

Roots and Lexical Categories

• «Complex words typically consist of a root morpheme and one or more affixes. The root constitutes the core of the word and carries the major component of its meaning. Roots typically belong to a lexical category, such as noun, verb, adjective, or preposition. . . . Unlike roots, affixes do not belong to a lexical category and are always bound morphemes. For example, the affix -er is a bound morpheme that combines with a verb such as teach, giving a noun with the meaning ‘one who teaches.'»
  (William O’Grady, et al., Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction, 4th ed. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2001)

Simple and Complex Words

• «[M]orphologically simple words, which contain only a single root morpheme, may be compared to morphologically complex words which contain at least one free morpheme and any number of bound morphemes. Thus, a word like ‘desire’ may be defined as a root morpheme constituting a single word. ‘Desirable,’ by contrast, is complex, combining a root morpheme with the bound morpheme ‘-able.’ More complex again is ‘undesirability’ which comprises one root and three bound morphemes: un+desire+able+ity. Notice also how, in complex words of this sort, the spelling of the root may be altered to conform to the bound morphemes around it. Thus, ‘desire’ becomes ‘desir-‘ while ‘beauty’ will be transformed into ‘beauti-‘ in the formation of ‘beautiful’ and of the increasingly complex ‘beautician.'» (Paul Simpson, Language Through Literature: An Introduction. Routledge, 1997)

Pronunciation:

ROOT

Also Known As:

base, stem

root ¹

 (ro͞ot, ro͝ot)

n.

1.

a. The usually underground portion of a plant that lacks buds, leaves, or nodes and serves as support, draws minerals and water from the surrounding soil, and sometimes stores food.

b. Any of various other underground plant parts, especially an underground stem such as a rhizome, corm, or tuber.

2.

a. The embedded part of an organ or structure such as a hair, tooth, or nerve, that serves as a base or support.

b. The bottom or supporting part of something: We snipped the wires at the roots.

3. The essential part or element; the basic core: I finally got to the root of the problem.

4. A primary source; an origin. See Synonyms at origin.

5. A progenitor or ancestor from which a person or family is descended.

6.

a. often roots The condition of being settled and of belonging to a particular place or society: Our roots in this town go back a long way.

b. roots The state of having or establishing an indigenous relationship with or a personal affinity for a particular culture, society, or environment: music with unmistakable African roots.

7. Linguistics

a. The element that carries the main component of meaning in a word and provides the basis from which a word is derived by adding affixes or inflectional endings or by phonetic change.

b. Such an element reconstructed for a protolanguage. Also called radical.

8. Mathematics

a. A number that when multiplied by itself an indicated number of times forms a product equal to a specified number. For example, a fourth root of 4 is √2. Also called nth root.

b. A number that reduces a polynomial equation in one variable to an identity when it is substituted for the variable.

c. A number at which a polynomial has the value zero.

9. Music

a. The note from which a chord is built.

b. Such a note occurring as the lowest note of a triad or other chord.

v. root·ed, root·ing, roots

v.intr.

1. To grow roots or a root: Carrot tops will root in water.

2. To become firmly established or settled: The idea of tolerance has rooted in our culture.

v.tr.

1. To plant and fix the roots of (a plant) in soil or the ground.

2. To establish or settle firmly: Our love of the ocean has rooted us here.

3. To be the source or origin of: «Much of [the team’s] success was rooted in the bullpen» (Dan Shaughnessy).

4.

a. To dig or pull out by the roots. Often used with up or out: We rooted out the tree stumps with a tractor.

b. To remove or get rid of. Often used with out: «declared that waste and fraud will be vigorously rooted out of Government» (New York Times).

Idiom:

root and branch

Utterly; completely: The organization has been transformed root and branch by its new leaders.

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root′er n.

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root ²

 (ro͞ot, ro͝ot)

v. root·ed, root·ing, roots

v.tr.

1. To turn up by digging with the snout or nose: hogs that rooted up acorns.

2. To cause to appear or be known. Used with out: an investigation that rooted out the source of the problem.

v.intr.

1. To turn over the earth with the snout or nose.

2. To search or rummage for something: rooted around for a pencil in his cluttered office.

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[Middle English wroten, from Old English wrōtan.]

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root′er n.

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root ³

 (ro͞ot, ro͝ot)

intr.v. root·ed, root·ing, roots

1. To give audible encouragement or applause to a contestant or team; cheer. See Synonyms at applaud.

2. To give moral support to someone; hope for a favorable outcome for someone: We’ll be rooting for you when you take the exam.

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[Possibly alteration of rout.]

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root′er n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

roots

(ruːts)

adj

(Pop Music) (of popular music) going back to the origins of a style, esp in being genuine and unpretentious: roots rock.

ˈrootsy adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014