Morphological and Semantical Effects of Phonemes on Pashto Lexical Structures

Abstract

Phonemes and segments are the key elements in the structure of Pashto words, playing an important role similar to other languages worldwide. Through the combination and arrangement of these segments, numerous morphemes and diverse words are generated. When assigning a vowel or consonant to the origin or base form of a word, it leads to the creation of new words and constructions that possess different forms, meanings, and belong to various grammatical categories. Structurally, at least one, two, three, or a maximum of four bound morphemes in the form of segments or phonemes could be added to the root or base morpheme, thus generating new lexemes and words. The addition of new phonemes and segments to the base or root form of a word alters its case, identification, quality, quantity, gender, number, tense, modification, meaning, and grammatical classification. Another important role of segments in the structure of lexemes is the syllabification of simple and complex words. The accumulation of each phoneme brings changes in the number of syllables within that word or phrase. Vowel segments primarily contribute to the syllabification of words. In conclusion, the hierarchical arrangement of segments generates new morphemes, while the combination of bound and free morphemes forms the basis for creating new simple, compound, and complex words in the Pashto language.