Re: Quasi-logographic

--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, Luciano Perondi (molotro)
<a.perondi@...> wrote:

> >
> >
> >> - there are only phonological and morphological
> >> elements and a syllabic/phonemic continuum.
> >
> > I cannot see any "morphological elements" in English spelling

(apart

> > perhaps
> > word spacing and capital letters -- but these elements are

certainly

> > not
> > unique to English).
>
> E.g. in the words < extreme > and < extremism > the second < e >

has a

> different pronunciation (according to my dictionary), but in the
> written form the morpheme < extrem- > is the same. Maybe this is a
> "morphological element" in English spelling (if extrem- is a

morpheme).

The difference in these two words is very subtle, and definitely not
phonemic. There may be a frequency difference between /eks"tri:m/
and /Iks"tri:m/ in the two words (along with variants /egz"tri:m/
and /Igz"tri:m/). The example you want is <extremity> /eks"tremItI/
(with variations in the pronunciation of <ex>). If //extri:m// is
not a morpheme, but is //extr// + //i:m//, then //i:m// is, also
occuring in <supreme>.

Richard.