Glossary of Linguistic Terms

Discontinuous Morpheme

Definition: 

A discontinuous morpheme is a morpheme that is interrupted by the insertion of another morphological unit.

Examples: 

(Phillipines)

A root containing an infix from Tagalog (Philippines):

  • bili: root ‘buy’
  • -um- : infix ‘AGT’
  • bumili: word ‘bought’

A circumfix surrounding a root from Tuwali Ifugao (Philippines):

  • baddang: root ‘help’v.
  • ka--an: circumfix ‘NOMR’
  • kabaddangan: word ‘helpfulness’
See Also: 

Glossary Hierarchy