Tracking a Morphological Pattern: miCCaC in Hebrew

Abstract

AbstractThe unmarked nominal pattern miCCaC is very productive in Hebrew and takes various sub-patterns depending on phonological and morphological factors. The phonological factors are determined by the first guttural consonant of the root, while the morphological factors are determined by weak roots in which only two consonantal roots occur. Several nouns belong to miCCaC pattern but need special consideration because they cannot be categorized by the above features. The semantic analysis of the nouns in this pattern shows that the majority of the nouns (61%) express rather general concepts, abstract as well as concrete, and a number of these can be considered as action nouns (gerundives). Only about 23% of the words indicate location and 16% denote tools or instruments.KeywordsRootPatternPhonologyMorphologyOrthographyGutturalsWeak rootSemantic load