A Study of the Semantic Network of /-oir/ and /-atoire/ Morphemes in French: A Comparative Approach

Abstract

In this comparative, analytic and descriptive study, we aimed to study and analyze the syntactic structure and semantic network of the words focusing on two high frequency bound morphemes in French language which are /-oir/ and /-atoire/, classified as suffixes that attach to roots and word stems to make new words with new meanings out of those roots. Therefore, in this paper, we deal with the internal structure of the words and their different parts, and to be more specific with the derivational process of suffixes which is also called suffixation. These two morphemes, despite their homophony and phonetic resemblance, which is sometimes a source of mistaking one with another, appear differently in derivational process; one (/-oir/) makes derivatives and new words from verbs, but the other (/-atoire/) makes new derivatives and new words from nouns, which are necessarily the feminine gender of the nouns in French, generally ending in /-ation/ that happens to be a noun making suffix itself. These two, used as suffixes, most commonly attach to word stems to make location nouns like “Abattoir” (slaughterhouse, کشتارگاه) or “Dortoir” (dormitory, خوابگاه) for /-oir/ suffix and “Laboratoire” (laboratory, آزمایشگاه) and “Observatoire” (observatory, رصدخانه) for /-atoir/ suffix. But the important point to be mentioned is that there are some examples that are not exactly locations, i.e. literally denotating a real place, and they are used in both languages as virtual locations with a metaphoric meaning. To clarify this, we take the example of “Memoire” (memory، حافظه) which is not a real location but a virtual place to keep information. On the other hand, these two suffixes, each separately, are used to make another group of nouns as well: /-oir/ as a suffix to make instrument and tools name, like “Arrosoir” for (watering can, آب‌پاش) and /-atoire/ as a suffix to make adjectives like “Evocatoire” (evocative, احضارکننده). Each group of words has its own derivational process in both languages, as exemplified in detail during the study. In the analytical part of the paper, we examined the Persian equivalents of the words collected as the body of the research, in order to compare the derivation process in both languages and see if they go under the same process and share the same semantic network in both languages or they have other meanings in each language. We found that the equivalent of the syntactic structure of /-oir/, in most cases, is also a derived word in Persian, and the suffixes (-گاه، -رو) replace the French suffix like پالایشگاه (Affinoir) or خوابگاه (Dortoir) and راهرو (Couloir) or قلمرو (Territoire); also sometimes Persian words are the result of compounding, in this case the suffix /-oir/ is replaced with the Persian noun «خانه» like رختشورخانه (Lavoir) or سلاخ خانه (Abattoir). Among the equivalents, we found genitive cases as well, where a noun modifies another noun, indicating an attributive relationship between them. This is the case in examples of زمین پاتیناژ (Patinoire) or اتاقک اعتراف (confessoire) which accepts the Persian suffix –ک adding a minimalizing concept due to the implicit meaning of the word. . As a suffix used to make instrument and tools name, we see again these kinds of equivalents as genitive cases like قیچی هرس (Ebranchoir) or سبد انگورچینی (Vendangeoir), but most of the equivalences picked for tools are the result of derivation of a noun with principal part of a present tense of a verb as we see in کفگیر (Ecumoire) or آب پاش (arrosoir). Among Persian words we also found some simple words like قلاب (fermoir), دستمال (mouchoir) or تراش (aiguisoir) which are chosen as equivalents according to the implicit meaning of the word stem. When it comes to the second suffix, i.e. /-atoire/ as a suffix used to make nouns of location again we found lots of equivalents in Persian which are derivative as well like آزمایشگاه (Laboratoire) or رصدخانه (Observatoire). As an adjective making position, we came over various kinds of derivatives, sometimes made with principal part of the verbs like رهایی بخش (Emancipatoire) or افتراآمیز(diffamatoire) and sometimes with a suffixation process where the Persian adjective making suffix “-ی” attaches to nouns and produces an adjective like دورانی for “Rotatoire” or اجباری for “obligatoire”. We have also pointed to exceptions of each group of the words in the research and it can be claimed that this analytic study of the words made with these two high frequency morphemes in French and their equivalents in Persian through multiple examples provides readers with the opportunity to compare syntactical structures and their semantic network as well as the similarities and differences made by these minimal units of words carrying the specific meanings in the examples collected in the research in both languages.