Subota S. Phonemic Structure of the Root Morpheme in Old, Middle and Modern English: A Study of Lexicographic Sources

This thesis focuses on the diachronic comparative study of phonemic structure of the root morpheme in the English language.The research describes the root variability, establishes the length of the root morpheme in phonemes and reveals its correlation with the root’s etymology. An inventory of canonical forms has been put together; peculiarities of their manifestations in roots of different length have been determined, while their modelling potential and symmetry within the root morpheme have been outlined for each of the three periods in the English language history. The thesis singles out those features of the root morpheme’s phonemic structure that underwent statistically significant changes in the process of the language development, as well as the ones that remained relatively stable.