"root" and "stem"

[pc2]

salutations,

we would like to know the difference between the linguistical terms "root" and "stem".
we would also like to know the corresponding terms in French.

thank you in advance.

[solbjerg]

Hi pc2
Root in the context I suppose you are looking for is like the origin of something
while stem is from whence it comes
linguistic stems from lingua
the root of lingua is the latin word for tongue.
This at least is my understanding of the words.
Cheers
solbjerg

salutations,

we would like to know the difference between the linguistical terms "root" and "stem".
we would also like to know the corresponding terms in French.

thank you in advance.

[serenita]

The French linguistic term for stem is un radical and the one for root is une racine or une base or...un radical.

Now, this can be a hair-splitting issue and I don't want my head to be cut off by a Linguist ex machina so I'll try to keep it casual: it's one and the same thing. That is to say, the smallest unit that gives meaning in a word (the lexical unit).

I can read in my dictionary that radical is used to talk about the core of a verb while base is the term preferred for the morphology of non-verbs, racine being the general term...

Root/stem of "planetarium" is "planet", for instance. "Planet" doesn't split up anymore but it comes from another word (from Greek, dixit my dictionary, in two steps, first a word meaning 'wanderer', built on another very similar word meaning 'wander').

But a root/stem doesn't need to be a word by itself, often it will only break down to one or two syllables adorned, if I may say, by affixes (let's not talk about splitting up Latin or Greek words, which are at the base of so many words in French or English, I won't do that...)

Anybody correct me if I'm wrong in anything!

What can be different is the "root word" -un mot souche or un mot-racine. That one is an already complete and ready-to-use word that is the source for several different other words (which will use its stem/root, not always recognisable in the newly formed term, though). If I had to give you an example, it'd be some Latin word like "castellum", root word for basically a lot of translations of the word "castle" from which it comes: château in French, castillo in Spanish, castello in Italian, etc. I guess a root word can also be a modern one.


Oh, that makes me think of a good typically French example to give you: the verb "embastiller" means "to put in La Bastille", the radical is (la) Bastille (proper noun), the famous prison in Paris, symbol of the French Revolution. Today, its meaning (to put in prison) is, let's say, half-ironic half-emphatic.


Do you get me in all this? I kind of start to have a headache...

[solbjerg]

Hi pc2
The use of the words is usually that the root is the base, while stem is from where it comes/springs from
This is often the same thing. But the root can be deeper than the stem :-) (usually is in nature) :-)
Cheerio
solbjerg

salutations,

we would like to know the difference between the linguistical terms "root" and "stem".
we would also like to know the corresponding terms in French.

thank you in advance.

[Sisyphe]

A very good question, that I will answer next year (in a few days, therefore), for I have neither books nor lessons (I habe been teached and have teached about this peculiar problem) with me now...

... A very good and difficult one, for linguists are often too slack by using their own terminology, all the more by translating.

[pc2]

thank you for the responses.