In Russian, there is a special section called word formation, which deals with the question of how new words are created. To date, it is the most complex and inconsistent, since every year philologists make new discoveries in this area. In total, 87% of words in Russian appeared due to word formation, and only 13% of the roots of them are unique. New parts of speech can be formed using affixes (prefixes and suffixes), and their form can be changed using inflections (endings).
Briefly about word formation
This science began to exist as an independent only in the second half of the twentieth century. The first attempts to do this were made by Grigory Osipovich Vinokur, who was the first to single out synchronic and diachronic word formation. Modern scientists are interested in the second aspect, which considers the creation of new words whenthe help of significant parts - prefixes, suffixes. Inflection is a less significant morpheme, so there are words in Russian that do not have an ending.
What is a morpheme?
There are certain units of change in word formation. In this science, a morpheme is the minimum significant part of any member of a sentence. There are words in Russian that do not have an ending, prefix or suffix, but they cannot exist without the root, which is their main part. New members of the sentence are formed by adding affixes. These include prefixes, suffixes, interfixes and postfixes.
The ending serves to form a new form of the word, therefore it is the least significant morpheme. It is not surprising that in many members of the proposal it may be completely absent. It will not be difficult for you to find out for yourself which words do not have endings, since they cannot be changed by numbers, tenses and cases.
It is customary to refer prefixes and suffixes to word-building morphemes. They testify to some specific features that are not observed in the initial form of the word.
What can the ending express?
This morpheme is not involved in word formation, but only helps in creating new forms of words. The lexical meaning does not change when the ending changes. In Russian, inflection expresses the following grammatical meanings:
- Gender, number, case - for nouns, adjectives, participles, pronouns, numerals. For example: music, bright, glowing, you, fiftyfamily.
- Person, number - for verbs in the present tense and future. For example: we think, I will hear.
- Gender, number - for verbs in the past tense. For example: arrived, remade.
- Case - for pronouns and numerals. For example: you, forty-two.
When asking which words do not have endings, you should pay attention to invariable parts of speech, such as adverbs, interjections, as well as conjunctions, particles, prepositions.
Morphemes. Part 1: Root
Each word in any language of the world has a certain meaning. The root is the core of a noun, adjective, verb or other part of speech and carries a conceptual meaning. The exceptions are unions, prepositions and some interjections that serve to connect the members of a sentence. Basically, all words that have a root and an ending form the basis of a sentence. These are nouns, adjectives and verbs. However, in any rule you can find an exception - so did the linguists, the compilers of the word-building dictionary.
Until recently, there was an opinion that the Russian language has a unique verb that lacks a root. "Take out" is used only with prefixes, it has a perfect form and the first conjugation. Having performed a morphemic analysis, it can be revealed that "you" is a prefix, and "well" and "t" are suffixes. Thus, the verb has lost its historical root - the philologist and linguist Boris Unbegaun wrote in his writings that this word "wonderful fullthe disappearance of the root". Nevertheless, the words "take out" and "take out", oddly enough, are the same root. In Russian, there are words that do not have an ending, but have main morphemes.
Illustrative examples of stem and root
| Root |
This morpheme is the most important in any word. There are cases when the members of a sentence consist of two or more roots, which are connected using interfixes (five-sided, one-story). Words that are close in meaning are called single-root. |
| Basis | This morpheme is the complete word without interfix, formative suffix, postfix; words without endings make up the full stem. |
There are about 3 thousand unique roots in the Russian language. Dahl's largest dictionary contains over 200 thousand words, from which we can conclude that most of them are of the same root.
Morphemes. Part 2: Word stem and ending
Null ending is present only in certain forms of sentence members. It depends on the gender, case, number - for nouns and adjectives, on time - for verbs. The zero ending can be traced in possessive adjectives with the suffix -i, such as "girlish", "motherly", "hare". This morpheme is absent from nouns in the genitive plural (beauties, forces, hair), as well as in the nominative case of the feminine 3 declension (mouse, daughter, rye) andmasculine 2 declensions (boy, table, pencil case). In morphemic analysis, an empty rectangle after the base is graphically highlighted. There are also no endings for verbs in the past tense singular masculine (drawn, played, looked) and short adjectives in a similar form (beautiful, cheerful, attentive).
The basis is present in all parts of speech. In all words, the morpheme consists of affixes and a root. The ending and formative suffixes are not included in its composition. The basis expresses the lexical meaning of the members of the sentence. Invariable words do not have endings, so they are part of the stem as a whole.
Illustrative examples of affixes
This term is usually used to call morphemes standing before or before the root.
| Prefix | Placed before the root and serves to form new words. Can be attached to nouns, verbs, adjectives, participles and participles. |
| Suffix | These morphemes serve to form new nouns (brother - brother), adjectives (skin - leather), verbs (business - to do), and are also present in some other members of the sentence. |
| Postfix |
There are several postfixes in Russian: - Xia, which indicates the reflexivity of the verb (to engage); - those inherent in verbs in the imperative form (do); - either, - something and - something, which indicates uncertainty(someone, something, someday); - ka, which is a call to action (let's go); - still, indicating perfection (did it). |
| Interfix |
In school, connecting vowels are called interfixes, thanks to which one can be obtained from two or more words. - o (gas pipeline); - and (hex); -e (blue-green); - ex (four-storey); - wow (two-tier). |
| End | A morpheme is usually found after a root or suffix. If you want to know which words don't end, try changing them by case, gender, or number. In some parts of speech, this is not possible. |
Thus, scientists distinguish 7 postfixes, 5 interfixes, 50 prefixes and countless suffixes.
Null ending and words that have no ending in Russian
This morpheme expresses gender, case, person, number of sentence members. It is absent in invariable words. These are the service parts of speech - prepositions (under, in view of, about, despite, in), particles (not, come on, even, hardly), unions (yes, and, because, as if, because). There are few of them in Russian, but it is impossible to do without them in modern speech.
It is customary to include interjections that express human emotions (eh, cheers), imitate sounds (meow, chirp, woof) or are used in speech to greetor goodbye (hello, goodbye).
Words that came into the Russian language from foreign ones cannot also change in cases and other parameters. These are the feminine (ivashi), masculine (coffee) and neuter (coat) nouns. Today, the number of these words is growing due to the interaction of Russian culture with others.
In adverbs (far, good) and some invariable adjectives (beige, khaki, marengo) there is also no inflection. However, words with a null ending should not be confused with these parts of speech. For nouns 1 and 2 of the genitive plural declension, inflection is not distinguished when parsing (saucers, armies). Also, the ending is zero for qualitative and relative adjectives.
How to do morphemic parsing
A large number of word-building dictionaries greatly simplify the definition of parts of a word. However, given the rapid development of the areas of the Russian language, all types of parsing must be done independently, since in manuals you run the risk of stumbling upon outdated data. With the help of morpheme analysis, it is possible to disassemble the composition of words that have a prefix, root, ending and suffix. Following the sequence of actions will provide you with a quality analysis.
First you need to determine the part of speech in order to identify the possibility of changing it by persons, numbers, gender and other criteria. Find the ending (if there is one), then the stem, the root, and then all the affixes.
How to do word-building analysis
The purpose of this type of parsing is to find out the way a part of speech is formed. The first step is to find the original basis and check it for derivation. Next, pick a starting word. After that, you can highlight the stem of the word being parsed, and then the affixes. So you can identify the word that is the primary source and find out which words do not have an ending from those that you need to parse into morphemes. Knowing this simple algorithm, a schoolboy, student or novice philologist will be able to easily master the most complex humanities.
