Re: IE Thematic Vowel Rule

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "elmeras2000" <jer@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>
> > Is 'stem-final' a phonological term?
>
> Not directly. It's a morphological term, and the rule is
> synchronically a morphophonological rule. Such rules generally reveal
> that certain parts of the morphology earlier offered specific
> phonological conditions that caused the changes underlying the rules
> observed. That's the way internal reconstruction works.

Examples of morphological rules in English include the doublets
_bodice_/_bodies_ and _dice_/_dies_. The case of _pence_/pennies_ is
a bit more complicated. The meanings with /s/ are collective, if not
singular. In normal English, the six-sided object with dots on it is
a 'dice', not a 'die'! 'Sixpence' is (was?) an amount, not six coins.
(Post-decimalisation words like 'twelfpence' and 'twelfpenny' chiefly
elicited puzzled looks.)

Richard.