Search
a morphological process in which a segment or a group of segments is inserted within a word, typically resulting in a change of the word's meaning or grammatical category
What is "transfixation"?
Transfixation is a word formation process in which a specific pattern of vowels is inserted into a root word, typically consisting of consonants, to create new forms of the word. This process is often found in languages like Arabic, where the root may consist of three consonants, and different vowel patterns can convey various grammatical meanings or word forms. For example, the root "k-t-b," which relates to writing, can be transformed into "kataba", meaning "he wrote", or "kitaab", meaning "book", by inserting different vowel sounds. Transfixation allows for the generation of related words while maintaining the core meaning linked to the original root.