Morphotactics represent the ordering restrictions in place on the ordering of morphemes. Etymologically, it can be translated as "the set of rules that define how morphemes (morpho) can touch (tactics) each other".
Example of a morphotactic rule
Many English affixes may only be attached directly to morphemes with particular parts of speech:
but not
The suffix -ity produces a noun from an adjective, and -able creates adjectives from verbs.[1] To reverse the order violates the rules of English morphotactics, making the word ungrammatical (marked with an asterisk).
Common morphotactic model
Finite-state machine and Graph are the two models which are often used as a set of rules for morphotactics.
References
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
