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    ge...te
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    ge...te /gə...tə/ is an unproductive Germanic circumfix found in nouns of neuter gender such as gebergte mountain chain (< berg mountain), geboefte scum, riff-raff (< boef crook), gebladerte foliage (< blad leaf) and gevogelte poultry, birds (< vogel bird). The meaning is collective group, collection of base.

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    ge...te /gə...tə/ is an unproductive Germanic circumfix. It is found in collective nouns het, based on nouns, such as gebergte mountain chain (< berg mountain), geboefte scum, riff-raff (< boef crook), and gevogelte poultry, birds (< vogel bird). (De Haas and Trommelen 1993: 256) note that base nouns typically are simplex Germanic stems, that is, monosyllabic or bisyllabic with a second syllable containing schwa. They moreover note that almost all bases end in a sonorant consonant, the only exceptions being geboefte scum and gebergte mountain chain. They hypothesize that this is the reason for the allomorphic base in gebladerte foliage (< blad leaf).

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    An idiosyncratic semantics is found in formations like geraamte skeleton < raam frame and gehemelte palate < hemel heaven, sky. (De Haas and Trommelen 1993: 256) claim the (obsolete) gedoente noise, fuss (< doen to do) and getimmerte wooden structure (timmeren to hammer) are the only cases with a verbal base, but note that doen and timmer room occur as nouns as well, possibly as the result of conversion. They also point at ge-...-te formations without a recognizable synchronous base such as gesternte stars, position of the stars (< obsolete stern star; see Etymologiebank), gehalte content (which is a loan from German; see Etymologiebank) and gevaarte colossus (which is a ge- derivation of the derived noun vaart speed, channel; see Etymologiebank).

    (De Haas and Trommelen 1993: 256) analyze ge-...-te as a circumfix, without giving any argumentation (Booij 2002: 119) calls ge-...-te a synnafix, claiming that "[t]he prefix ge- is [...] used in combination with the suffix -te for the derivation of collective nouns." The semantic contribution of -te is left unspecified, whereas it is claimed that "[t]his use of ge- is a reflex of the collective meaning of the prefix ga- in proto-Germanic that is also present in gebroeders brothers; it is from this ga- that the different prefixes ge- derive historically." (Smessaert 2013: 144), on the other hand, argues that ge-...-te should be considered a circumfix or discontinuous morpheme on the basis of the fact that both the combination of the prefix with the free morpheme, and the combination of the suffix with the free morpheme, are ungrammatical: neither *geberg, *gebeen or *geboef nor *bergte, *beente or *boefte are well-formed derivations in Dutch. An analysis in terms of construction morphology(Booij 2010), in which two affixes and a construction-specific semantics would go hand in hand, is an obvious alternative.

    A form like gemeente community is not a case of ge...te derivation: the base is the adjective gemeen common combined with the nominalizing affix -te.

    Formations with ge..te are of neuter gender, taking the singular definite article het. The plural, if applicable, is formed with the suffix -en (gesteenten rocks), occasionally with an additional form in -s.(De Haas and Trommelen 1993: 256) (geraamten, geraamtes skeletons).

    Formations with ge-...-te easily function as righthand parts of nominal compounds (vogelgeraamte bird skeleton), rarely as lefthand parts. Diminutive formation is also rare, (De Haas and Trommelen 1993: 272) give a morphophonological explanation (diminutive formation of nouns derived with suffixes ending in a syllable with schwa is rare, (Haeseryn et al. 1997) try to explain this in terms of semantics (one rarely finds diminutives with collective nouns, abstract nouns and names of substances; see ANS). Whatever the correct explanation is, the restriction is not absolute, as Google search finds various examples such as gebergtetje small mountain range.

    References
    • Booij, Geert2002The morphology of DutchOxfordOxford University Press
    • Booij, Geert2010Construction morphologyOxford/New YorkOxford University Press
    • Haas, Wim de & Trommelen, Mieke1993Morfologisch handboek van het Nederlands. Een overzicht van de woordvormingSDU Uitgeverij
    • Haas, Wim de & Trommelen, Mieke1993Morfologisch handboek van het Nederlands. Een overzicht van de woordvormingSDU Uitgeverij
    • Haas, Wim de & Trommelen, Mieke1993Morfologisch handboek van het Nederlands. Een overzicht van de woordvormingSDU Uitgeverij
    • Haas, Wim de & Trommelen, Mieke1993Morfologisch handboek van het Nederlands. Een overzicht van de woordvormingSDU Uitgeverij
    • Haas, Wim de & Trommelen, Mieke1993Morfologisch handboek van het Nederlands. Een overzicht van de woordvormingSDU Uitgeverij
    • Haeseryn, Walter, Romijn, Kirsten, Geerts, Guido, Rooij, Jaap de & Toorn, Maarten C. van den1997Algemene Nederlandse spraakkunstGroningenNijhoff
    • Smessaert, Hans2013Basisbegrippen morfologieBasisbegrippen taalkundeLeuven/Den HaagACCO
    About this article
    Author(s): Ton van der Wouden
    Category: Dutch Morphology
    Keywords: prefixsuffixcircumfixnativenoun
    Version: 1.0, December 2015
    Version history:
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    1.0 Ton van der Wouden December 2015
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