2. Morphology.
2.0.1. There are two types of words in Saanich:
full words and particles. The
particles are function
morphemes that cannot stand alone. They are cliticized
to full words but do not form phonological parts of them. See §2.6
for descriptions of each of them. Full words, on the other hand, are
predicative. Any full word can stand alone and form a sentence by itself.
2.0.2. Each full word has at least one root, a basic
content morpheme.
Most roots are free and predicative. So, most roots can act
as full words and therefore sentences themselves. Since all full words are
predicative, there are neither structural criteria nor usefulness in
categorizing roots or any full word in terms of noun1,
verb, adjective, etc.
2.0.3. Although roots can stand alone as predicates, most
often they occur with one or more morphological processes including
prefixation (§2.1), suffixation (§2.2), and various radical
morphological processes (§2.3). These processes then usually form a
stem. A stem is any predicative form which may undergo further morphological
processes. Therefore, the bare free root is the most basic stem.
2.0.4. In most cases the addition of an affix to a stem
forms a new stem. There are some affixes, however, that must be accompanied
by further affixation. The ‘transitive’ suffixes (§2.5), for
example,
must be
followed by at least one other morpheme such as an object
suffix. It will
therefore be useful to distinguish between stems and bases. A base is any form
that includes a root and may undergo further morphological processes but is not
necessarily a full word. If a base is a full word it is also a stem. All stems
are bases but not all bases are stems.
2.0.5. The root ∥√t̕θis∥
‘punch, pound’, for example,
can occur alone meaning ‘someone got punched.’ It is a root since it is a
single, basic, content morpheme. It is also a base for other morphemes, and,
since it can stand as a predicate, it is also a stem. Adding the lexical
suffix ∥=as∥ ‘face’ (see §2.2.10) and the ‘locative’ prefix
∥xʷ-∥ (see §2.1.3) produces the stem /xʷt̕θsás/ ‘someone got
hit in the face.’ The addition of ∥-ət∥ ‘control transitive’ produces a
base but not a stem. With the third person object (see §2.4.3) a
full word is produced: /xʷt̕θsást/ ‘punch him in the face.’
2.0.6. This section primarily divides and discusses the
morphology of Saanich along formal lines. The first three subsections deal
with prefixation (§2.1), suffixation (§2.2) and radical
morphological processes (§2.3), and the last section describes the
particles (§2.6). Two subsections diverge from this strictly formal
break-down. Person (§2.4) and voice (§2.5) involve
prefixation, suffixation, and particles, but these two functional subsystems
are of such importance
in the structure of Saanich it seems best that each be
discussed in a separate subsection.
In the example sentences in this section, Saanich forms with no
bracketing or those bracketed by single slashes are given in the form of a
phonological level of surface contrast. Each such example is followed by an
English translation in single quotes. This is then followed when it is
particularly relevant by an underlying form bracketed by double slashes.
A morpheme by morpheme gloss of the example is often given in square brackets.
Note to §2.0.
1. See Kinkade (1983) for a discussion of the lack of categories
such as ‘noun’ and ‘verb’ for Salish in general.