Cranberry Morpheme Article Index for
Cranberry 		Website Links For
Cranberry 		 

Information About

Cranberry Morpheme
  CATEGORIES ABOUT CRANBERRY MORPHEME
   
units of linguistic morphology
   
morpheme
   
APPAREL
BABY
BEAUTY
BOOKS
CAR TOYS
CELL PHONES
DVD'S
ELECTRONICS
GOURMET FOOD
GROCERIES
HEALTH & PERSONAL
HOME & GARDEN
JEWELRY
MUSIC
MUSIC INSTRUMENTS
OFFICE PRODUCTS
SOFTWARE
SPORTING GOODS
TOOLS & HARDWARE
TOYS
VIDEO GAMES
SHOPPING HOME
MORE SHOPPING...



  • ''mit'' in ''permit,'' ''commit,'' and ''submit''

  • ''ceive'' in ''receive,'' ''perceive,'' and ''conceive''

  • ''twi'' in ''twilight''

  • and ''spick'' and ''span'' in ''spick-and-span''


The Canonical example is the ''cran'' of '' Cranberry ''. It is unrelated to the word ''cran'' meaning a case of herrings, and though it actually comes from '' Crane '' (the bird), this is not superficially obvious. Likewise, ''mul'' exists only in '' Mulberry '' (''mul'' is from Latin ''morus'', the mulberry tree). Phonetically , the first morphemes of '' Gooseberry '' and '' Raspberry '' also count as cranberry morphemes, as they don't occur by themselves, but the spelling gives a clue to their obscure origins. Compare these to '' Blackberry '', which has two obvious unbound morphemes. The first morphemes of '' Loganberry '' and '' Boysenberry '' are derived from names.

Cranberry morphemes can arise in several ways:
  • A dialect word can become part of the standard language in a compound, but not in its root form: e.g. ''blatherskite'', "one who talks nonsense", has Scots ''skite'' meaning "contemptible person".

  • A word can become obsolete in its root form but remain current in a compound: e.g. ''lukewarm'' from Middle English ''luke'' "tepid".

  • A compound '' is from German ''hinter'' "behind" and ''land'' "land".

  • A loanword may have one part ''tafereel'' "carved panel".




SEE ALSO