Re: IE Thematic Vowel Rule

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham"
<richard.wordingham@...> wrote:

> --- 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.)
>

My grandmother used to buy butter by the 'pund' (500 g) fifty years
after it was officially abolished. I also remember when planks were
in Danish 'tommer' (inches). These things die hard. Now they're only
used in sayings.


Torsten