1.

Morpheme as the smallest meaningful unit

As the biggest units of morphology, words are made up of smaller units –morphemes. A morpheme is
the smallest, indivisible meaningful language unit within the structure of a word.

The study of words and morphemes is included in morphology.

Like a word, a morpheme is a two-faced language unit. It means that a morpheme has a certain
meaning & a certain sound-pattern.
But unlike a word, a morpheme is not autonomous, it can occur in speech only as a constituent [kən
ˈstɪtjuənt] (составляющая) part of a word.

To understand better => Examples:

 Unladylike
o The word unladylike consists of three morphemes and four syllables.
o Morpheme breaks:
 un- 'not'
 lady '(well behaved) female adult human'
 -like 'having the characteristics of'
o None of these morphemes can be broken up any more without losing all sense of
meaning. Lady cannot be broken up into "la" and "dy," even though "la" and "dy" are
separate syllables. Note that each syllable has no meaning on its own.
 Dogs
o The word dogs consists of two morphemes and one syllable:
 dog, and
 -s, a plural marker on nouns
o But it should be note that a morpheme like "-s" can just be a single phoneme and does not
have to be a whole syllable.
 Technique
o The word technique consists of only one morpheme having two syllables.
o Even though the word has two syllables, it is a single morpheme because it cannot be
broken down into smaller meaningful parts.

But there are also so-called isolating languages, such as Vietnamese, have a one-to-one
correspondence of morphemes to words; i.e., no words contain more than one morpheme.

Function of Morpheme

The basic function of a morpheme is to give meaning to a word. It may or may not stand alone. When
it stands alone, it is thought to be a root. However, when it depends upon other morphemes to complete
an idea, then it becomes an affix and plays a grammatical function.

Besides, inflectional and derivational morphemes can transform meanings and functions of the words
respectively adding richness and beauty to a text.

1.1. Types of morphemes.

1.1.1. Lexical, grammatical and lexico-grammatical morphemes.

Lexical morphemes are those that having meaning by themselves (more accurately, they have sense).

Grammatical morphemes specify a relationship between other morphemes. But the distinction is not all
that well defined.
 Nouns, verbs, adjectives ({boy}, {buy}, {big}) are typical lexical morphemes.

Prepositions, articles, conjunctions ({of}, {the}, {but}) are grammatical morphemes.

To explain what morpheme is let's take the word "books" for example. This word can be broken up in
two parts: bookand -s. The content of the first part can be rendered by the Russian книг - and the meaning
of the second is "plurality". Each of the two parts of the "books" has both form and content. Such
meaningful parts of a word are called morphemes. If we break up the word "books" in some other way:
boo-ks, the

We have two morphemes in the word "book" - book - and zero morpheme. Morphemes of the book-
type and their meanings are called lexical. The meaning of the morpheme -s is relative, dependent, it is
called grammatical meaning and such morphemes grammatical. Besides lexical and grammatical there
exist some intermediate types: the first morphemes in the words de-part, for-give and the second in fly-er,
home-less. They are called lexico-grammatical English also possesses free lexicogrammatical morphemes
(get up, the Volga).

1.1.2. Root and affixational morphemes.

Semantically morphemes fall into 2 classes: root-morphemes and non-root or affixational morphemes.
Roots and affixes make 2 distinct classes of morphemes due to the different roles they play in word-
structure.

The root-morpheme is the lexical nucleus of the word; it has a very general and abstract lexical
meaning common to a set of semantically related words constituting one word-cluster, e.g. (to)teach,
teacher, teaching. Besides the lexical meaning root-morphemes possess all other types of meaning proper
to morphemes except the part-of-speech meaning which is not found in roots.Affixational morphemes
include inflectional affixes or inflections and derivational affixes.

1.1.3 Structurally morphemes fall into three types: free morphemes, bound morphemes, semi-free
(semi- bound) morphemes.

A free morpheme is defined as one that coincides with the stem or a word-form. A great many root-
morphemes are free morphemes, for example, the root-morpheme friend — of the noun friendship is
naturally qualified as a free morpheme because it coincides with one of the forms of the noun friend.

A bound morpheme occurs only as a constituent part of a word. Affixes are, naturally, bound
morphemes, for they always make part of a word, e.g. the suffixes -ness, -ship, -ise (-ize), etc., the
prefixes un-, dis-, de-, etc. (e.g. readiness, comradeship, to activise; unnatural, to displease, to decipher).
Many root-morphemes also belong to the class of bound morphemes which always occur in morphemic
sequences, i.e. in combinations with roots or affixes.

All unique roots and pseudo-roots are-bound morphemes. Such are the root-morphemes theor- in
theory, theoretical, etc., barbar-in barbarism, barbarian, etc., -ceive in conceive, perceive, etc. Semi-bound
(semi-free) morphemes are morphemes that can function in a morphemic sequence both as an affix and as
a free morpheme. For example, the morpheme well and half on the one hand occur as free morphemes
that coincide with the stem and the word-form in utterances like sleep well, half an hour, on the other
hand they occur as bound morphemes in words like well-known, half-eaten, half-done.

1.2 Allomorphs.

In phonology, an allomorph is a variant form of a morpheme. An allomorph is defined as a positional

variant of a morpheme occurring in a specific environment and so characterised by complementary
distribution. «…This means that they cannot substitute for each other. Hence, we cannot replace one
allomorph of a morpheme by another allomorph of that morpheme and change meaning." (Francis
Katamba, "English Words: Structure, History, Usage," 2nd ed. Routledge, 2004).

Complementary distribution is said to take place when two linguistic variants cannot appear in the
same environment.

A simple example of allomorphy in English is in the plural morpheme. In written English, the form of
the plural morpheme is spelled -s, as in:

carrots

books

hats

friends

apples

iguanas

But it’s spelled –es in words like:

churches

bushes

quizzes

And in fact, even in the cases where it’s spelled -s, it’s pronounced as [s] for words that end in a
voiceless segment (carrots, books, cliffs) and as [z] for words that end in voiced sounds (worms, dogs,
birds). So it’s got two written forms (-s and -es) and three spoken forms ([s], [z], [ɨz]), but a consistent
meaning of “more than one”. Each form is an allomorph of the plural morpheme.

Different morphemes are characterised by contrastive distribution, i.e. if they occur in the same
environment they signal different meanings. The suffixes -able and -ed, for instance, are different
morphemes, not allomorphs, because adjectives in -able mean ‘capable of being’: measurable ‘capable of
being measured’, whereas -ed as a suffix of adjectives has a resultant force: measured ‘marked by due
proportion’, as the measured beauty of classical Greek art; hence also ‘rhythmical’ and ‘regular in
movement’, as in the measured form of verse, the measured tread. In some cases the difference is not very
clear-cut: -ic and -ical, for example, are two different affixes, the first a simple one, the second a group
affix; they are said to be characterised by contrastive distribution. But many adjectives have both the -ic
and -ical form, often without a distinction in meaning. COD points out that the suffix -ical shows a vaguer
connection with what is indicated by the stem: a comic paper but a comical story. However, the
distinction between them is not very sharp.

Allomorphs will also occur among prefixes. Their form then depends on the initials of the stem with
which they will assimilate. A prefix such as im- occurs before bilabials (impossible), its allomorph ir-
before r (irregular), il- before l (illegal). It is in- before all other consonants and vowels (indirect,
inability).

Two or more sound forms of a stem existing under conditions of complementary distribution may also
be regarded as allomorphs, as, for instance, in long a :length n, excite v :excitation n.
 Past Tense Allomorphs

Past tense is another morpheme that has multiple morphs and is thus an allomorph. When you form the
past tense, you add the sounds /t/, /d/, and /əd/ to words to put them in past tense, such as in talked,
grabbed, and wanted, respectively.

"Completely arbitrary allomorphs, such as English went (go + past tense), are relatively rare in the
lexicon, and occur almost exclusively with a few very frequent words. This unpredictable kind of
allomorphy is called suppletion." (Paul Georg Meyer, "Synchronic English Linguistics: An Introduction,"
3rd ed. Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005)

Allomorphs therefore as it is shown, phonetically conditioned positional variants of the same

derivational or functional morpheme (suffix, root or prefix) identical in meaning and function and
differing in sound only insomuch, as their complementary distribution produces various phonetic
assimilation effects.

2.1 Root, stem, bound base

‘Root’, ‘stem’ and ‘base’ are all terms used in the literature to designate that part of a word that
remains when all affixes have been removed.

A root is a form which is not further analysable, either in terms of derivational or inflectional
morphology. It is that part of word-form that remains when all inflectional and derivational affixes have
been removed. A root is the basic part always present in a lexeme. In the form ‘untouchables’ the root is
‘touch’, to which first the suffix ‘-able’, then the prefix ‘un-‘ and finally the suffix ‘-s’ have been added.
In a compound word like ‘wheelchair’ there are two roots, ‘wheel’ and ‘chair’.

A stem is of concern only when dealing with inflectional morphology.

In the form ‘untouchables’ the stem is ‘untouchable’, although in the form ‘touched’ the stem is
‘touch’; in the form ‘wheelchairs’ the stem is ‘wheelchair’, even though the stem contains two roots.

A base is any form to which affixes of any kind can be added. This means that any root or any stem
can be termed a base, but the set of bases is not exhausted by the union of the set of roots and the set of
stems: a derivationally analysable form to which derivational affixes are added can only be referred to as
a base. That is, ‘touchable’ can act as a base for prefixation to give ‘untouchable’, but in this process
‘touchable’ could not be referred to as a root because it is analysable in terms of derivational morphology,
nor as a stem since it is not the adding of inflectional affixes which is in question.

You know that a base that can stand free as a word is called a free base. If we remove the prefix re-
from the word recharge, we are left with charge, which is a free base.

You also know that a stem that can stand free as a word is called a free stem. If we remove the prefix
re- from the word recharged, we are left with charged, which is a free stem. Charged is a free stem that
contains the free base charge plus the suffix -ed.

A base that cannot stand free as a word is called a bound base. A bound base has to have a prefix or a
suffix or another base added to it to make it into a word. If we remove the prefix re- from the word reject,
we are left with ject, which is a bound base because it cannot stand free as a word. You can reject
something, but you can’t just ‘ject’ it.

A stem that cannot stand free as a word is called a bound stem. If we remove the prefix re- from the
word rejection, we are left with jection, which is a bound stem that contains the bound base ject and the
suffix -ion.
 2.2 Affix, semi-affix, superfix.

An affix is added to the root of a word to change its meaning. An affix added to the front of a word is
known as a prefix. One added to the back is known as a suffix. Sometimes, prefixes are hyphenated(
через дефис).

incapable(The affix is the prefix in.), ex-President (The affix is the prefix ex-.), laughing (The affix is
the suffix -ing.

There are cases when it’s rather difficult to draw a line between roots and affixes. There’re a few roots
in english whch have developed great combining ability in the position of the 2nd element of a word anda
very general meaning similar to that of an affixe. These are called semi-affixes. They recieve this name
because sementiccaly, structurally and functionaly they behave more like affixes than like roots. Their
meaning is very general. They determine lexico-grammatical class, the word belongs to. The most
common semi-affixes are: half (half – halfdone), man (man – policeman), well (well – well-done), ill (ill
– ill-dressed), self (self – selfportrait)

a suprafix(superfix) is a type of affix where a suprasegmental change modifies an existing

morpheme's meaning. In many languages, they are used to differentiate between otherwise identical
lexemes, but in some they are used derivationally or inflectionally. An example in English is the creation
of initial-stress-derived nouns. For instance, the noun próduce is an initially stressed version of the verb
prodúce "create" or "bring forth". Another is Mandarin 好 hǎo and 好 hào, where the tone changes from
low to falling.

2.3.1 Prefix, suffix, infix.

Prefix are morphological units that attach before the stems, root or base of words; prefix and suffix are
either derivational or inflectional morphemes attachment, the former alters the meaning and the latter
expresses a modification of the same meaning. Example; “un-stable,” which is the contrast of “stable,” is
a derivational morpheme prefix because it altered the meaning of word; more examples are “un-able,” de-
code,” “be-fore,” and “ex-hale.” Two examples of derivational morphemes affixed as both prefix and
suffix are words such as “re-run,” and “modern-ize;”

Suffix are morphological units that attach themselves after the stems, root or base off words; examples
are “talk-ed,” “dog-s,” and “stable-s,” where the suffix “ed,” “s,” modifies their meaning into present
tense or pluralization. These are inflectional morphemes where the overall meaning is augmented.
However, “stable-s,” with the added “s,” augments the singularity to plurality in a peculiar way, because
the lexeme “stable,” is ambiguous; it’s a noun for “a building for horses,” and an “adjective,” “to firmly
established or unchanged.” Examples of derivational suffixes are “paint-er,” where the verb “paint,” has
been altered into noun “painter.”

Infixes are inserted between prefixes and suffixes; examples are “unstable,” where “un,” is the
derivational morpheme prefix and “able,” is the free morpheme affixed; “st,” is the infix because it’s
riveted between the prefix “un,” and the suffix “able.” Infixes are easy to remember because they’re
always implanted between a prefix and suffix; there’s also the infix being implanted between two free
morphemic units; such as, “mother-in-law,” where the infix “in,” changes the meaning of the noun
“mother,” and the noun “law.” “Mother-in-law,” encapsulates the essence of what an infix entails;
however, “un-st-able,” illustrates the insertion of morphemic elements in the center of a word, but
technically “st,” is a derivational morphemic prefix. Infixes can add to the intensification of meanings or
alter new meanings; consider infixes to be inflectional or derivational units implanted in the body of a
word.

2.3.2. Derivational and inflectional affixes

 An affix is a bound morpheme that attaches to the stem of a word to form either a new word or a new
form of the same word. The two types of affixes in English are prefixes and suffixes.

Affixes may be derivational or inflectional. Derivational affixes create new words. Inflectional affixes
create new forms of the same word.

Derivational

Derivational is an adjective that refers to the formation of a new word from another word through
derivational affixes. In English, both prefixes and suffixes are derivational.

Inflectional.

Inflectional is an adjective that refers to the formation of a new form of the same word through
inflectional affixes.

In English, only suffixes are inflectional.

2.3.3 Native and borrowed affixes (classification of affixes according to their origin)

Native affixes are formed from Old English words (bound forms may be derived from free words).

The most important native suffixes are: -er, -ed, -dom, -en, -ful, -less, - hood, -let, -lock, -ly, -ness, -
red, -ship, -some, -teen, -th, -ward, -wise, -y.

Borrowed affixes are those that have come to the English language from different foreign languages.
According to their origin, are Latin (-or, -ant, -able), French (-ard, -ance, -ate) and Greek (-ist, -ism, -oid).

The nomenclature of suffixes and other word-final elements in English is gradually increasing and
amounts to about 1500 elements.

e.g. phobia –agarophobia

pedia – logopedia

noia – paranoia

onomasia – paronomasia

logic – genealogic, dialogic

These forms are either always or frequently encountered in combination with other words or word
elements. *

2.3.4. Productive, semi productive and non-productive affixes.

By their activity in the language affixes are subdivided into productive and

non-productive. Productive affixes are used to build new words: -ism (escapism), -

ize (nationalize). Productive affixes take part in word-formation in modern English, e.g. -er, -ing, -
ness, -ism, -ance, un-, re-, dis-, -y, -ish, -able, -ise, -ate.

Non-productive affixes do not build new words: -th (growth), -ous (monotonous). They are not active
in word-formation in modern English, e.g. –th, -hood, -some, -en; non-productive affix = dead affix.
 Semi-productive: -ette kitchenette, -ward sky-ward;

2.4 Affixation – such a way of word-building when we form new words by adding suffixes or prefixes.
Once affixes were separate independent words. What is now a suffix was at some period of time a
separate word.

e.g. dom – a state, condition; ship – to create, to shape; hood – the state of being

Affixes can be viewed from three points: etymology, functions and productivity.

As to their etymology affixes are subdivided into 2 groups:

1. Native or Germanic (affixes created in English language itself at different periods of its
development – under, out, er, hood, dom, ness)

2. Borrowed from Latin, Greek, French (pre, anti, age, ation)

As to their function affixes are subdivided into:

1. Form – building affixes (inflexious)

2. Word – building affixes (derivational)

To the first belong –en (oxen), -s, -es (boys, books, classes), -s, -es (sits, teachers, drivers)

To word – building affixes belong those by means of which new words are formed easi-ly, boy-hood.

As to their productivity affixes are subdivided into:

a) productive affixes (they form new words in Modern English).

b) non – productive affixes (which don’t form new words but are available in many existing). e.g.
disharmony, hostage, continuous

c) dead – affixes (which don’t look like affixes at the 1st sight, but are understood as such after
diachronical analysis) e.g. seduce, bishopric, wedlock, hatred, twinkle, clatter, blubber

We should remind here again of the term allomorphs – which are used to denote elements of a group
which constitute the structural unit of the language. Thus, e.g. ion, tion, ation – are the positional variants
of the same suffix. They don’t differ in meaning or function but show a slight difference in sound form
depending on the final phoneme of the preceding stem. They are considered as variants of one and the
same morpheme and called its allomorphs. Allomorphs will also occur among prefixes. Their form then
depends on the initials of the stem with which they will assimilate.

A prefix such as im occurs before bilabials (impossible), its allomorphs ir before r (irregular), il before
l (illegal). It is in before all the other consonants and vowels (indirect, inability).

It should be noted that the word-building capacity of the affixes may change in the course of time,
some affixes remain productive while others become non-productive. The process may continue so that in
the long run some affixes become "dead", i.e. they can not be segregated by analysis into IС's and the
words containing them are morphologically indivisible.

The productivity of an affix should not be confused with its frequency which is the synchronic
characteristic and means the existence in the vocabulary of a great number of words but if it is not used to
form new ones, it is not productive. It is interesting to note that such non-productive suffixes as al (ial),
ical, ve, ancy, ency, ant (ent), ive are among the 32 most frequent suffixes of the English vocabulary.

e.g. labial, formal, logical, attentive, frequency, important, independent.

2.5 valency of affixes and stems

Valency is essential feature of affixes, their combining power. The possibility of a particular stem
taking a particular affix depends on phonomorphological, morphological and semantic factors. E.g:
suffixes –ance/ence occur only after b,t,d,dz,v,l.(insistence), but not after s,z (conservation).

Valency of bases. is the possibility of a particular base to take a particular affix. The valency of bases
is not unlimited, e.g., noun bases can be followed by: the noun-forming suffixes, e.g. –eer (profiteer), -ful
(spoonful), -ics (linguistics), -let (cloudlet); the adjective-forming suffixes, e.g. –al (doctoral), -ary
(revolutionary), -ous (spacious), -ic (historic); the verb-forming suffixes, e.g. –en (hearten), -ize
(sympathize).

2.5 Completives (a combining form)

To the first group belong morphemes of Greek and Latin origin often called combining forms. A
combining form (a completive) should not be confused with an affix. A combining form is also a bound
form but it can be distinguished from an affix historically by the fact that it is always borrowed from
another language (Greek and Latin) in which it existed as a free form, i.e. as a separate word, or also as a
combining form. They differ from all other borrowings in that they occur in compounds and derivatives
that did not exist in the original language but were formed only in modern times in English, Russian,
French, etc., e.g. polyclinic, stereophonic, television, seismograph. Combining forms are mostly
international. A combining formdiffers from an affix because it can occur as one constituent of a word
whose only other constituent is an affix, e.g. graphic, cyclic, aerate. Also an affix is characterized by its
position to the stem, either before the stem (prefix) or after the stem (suffix), whereas the same combining
form may occur in both positions, e.g. phonograph, microphone. The combining form allo from Greek
allos (other) is used in linguistic terminology to denote elements of a group whose members together
constitute a structural unit of the language, e.g. allophones, allomorphs. Thus, for example, -ion / -sion / -
tion / -ation are the positional variants of the same suffix. They do not differ in meaning or function but
show a slight difference in sound form depending on the final phoneme of the preceding stem. They are
considered as variants of one and the same morpheme and are called allomorphs.

 Combining forms (completives) are often used in modern English to form neo-classical compound
words, either as one of the stems, or both of them.

 Both components are completives in such words as: aerogram, aeronaut (from Greek aer – air),
astronaut (from Greek astro – star), biblioklept (from Greek biblio – book, kleptos – thief), claustrophobia
(from Latin claustrum – closed space, phobia– fear), videophone (from Latin video –I see).

 The first component is a completive and the second is a free stem in such words as: aerocapture
(торможение космического корабля), autohypnosis (самовнушение), cardioversion
(электростимулятор сердца), multimedia (спектакль-лекция с использованием нескольких средств
информации: кино, магнитофон, слайды), neurosurgeon (нейрохирург)

2.6. Splinters

In the second half of the twentieth century the English wordbuilding system was enriched by creating
so called splinters which scientists include in the affixation stock of the Modern English wordbuilding
system. Splinters are the result of clipping the end or the beginning of a word and producing a number of
new words on the analogy with the primary word-group.

The morphological term splinter was coined by linguist J.M. Berman in "Contribution on Blending" in
Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, 1961.

Splinters can be called pseudomorphemes because they are neither roots nor affixes, they are more or
less artificial.

As far as words with splinters are concerned it is difficult to distinguish between derived words and
compound-shortened words.

If a splinter is treated as an affix (or a semi-affix) the word can be called derived , e.g.-, «telescreen»,
«maxi-taxi» , «shuttlegate», «cheeseburger».

But if the splinter is treated as a lexical shortening of one of the stems , the word can be called
compound-shortened word formed from a word combination where one of the components was
shortened, e.g. «busnapper» was formed from « bus kidnapper», «minijet» from «miniature jet».

"The splinter is formally identical to a clipping, but whereas clippings function as full words, splinters
do not".

Splinters have only one function in English: they serve to change the lexical meaning of the same part
of speech, whereas prefixes and suffixes can also change the part-of-speech meaning.

The difference between a splinter and a true suffix is that speakers understand splinters in relation
to the original word from which the ending splits off.

What Happens to Splinters

• Splinters may have any one of three possible fates.

They may disappear. I suspect that this is what has happened to -teria (a splinter from cafeteria which
had a brief flourishing in words like washeteria but now seem to have become unavailable).

• They may become productive affixes. This appears to be what has happened with -nomics, in
Thatchernomics is a splinter, recurring in Reaganomics, Rogernomics, Nixonomics, etc., although it is of
very low productivity.

• They may become independent words. This is what has happened to burger.

This is a kind of splinter which is formed by means of apheresis, that is clipping the beginning of a
word. The origin of such splinters can be variable, e.g. the splinter «burger» appeared in English as the
result of clipping the German borrowing «Hamburger» where the morphological structure was the stem
«Hamburg» and the suffix -er. However in English the beginning of the word «Hamburger» was
associated with the English word «ham», and the end of the word «burger» got the meaning «a bun cut
into two parts». On the analogy with the word «hamburger» quite a number of new words were coined,
such as: «baconburger», «beefburger», «cheeseburger», «fishburger» etc.

Splinters in Blends
 Splinters arise through the process of blending.

Blends may be composed of two elements called splinters (ballute from balloon and parachute), or
only one element is a splinter and the other element is a full word (escalift from escalator and lift,
needcessity from need and necessity)

Examples of blends:

There are many words formed with the help of the splinter mini- (apocopy produced by clipping the
word «miniature»), such as «miniplane», «minijet», «minicycle», «minicar», «miniradio» and many
others. All of these words denote obects of smaller than normal dimensions.

On the analogy with «mini-» there appeared the splinter «maxi»- (apocopy produced by clipping the
word «maximum»), such words as «maxi-series», «maxi-sculpture», «maxi-taxi» and many others
appeared in the language.

The splinter «thon» is the result of clipping the beginning of the word «marathon». «Marathon»
primarily was the name of a battle-field in Greece, forty miles from Athens, where there was a battle
between the Greek and the Persian. When the Greek won a victory a Greek runner was sent to Athens to
tell people about the victory. Later on the word «Marathon» was used to denote long-distance
competitions in running. The splinter «thon(athon)» denotes «something continuing for a long time»,
«competition in endurance» e.g. «dancathon», «telethon», «speakathon», «readathon», «walkathon»,
«moviethon», «swimathon», «talkathon», «swearthon» etc.

Splinters can be the result of clipping adjectives or substantivized adjectives. The splinter «aholic»
(holic) was formed by clipping the beginning of the word «alcoholic» of Arabian origin where «al»
denoted «the», «koh’l» - «powder for staining lids». The splinter «(a)holic» means «infatuated by the
object expressed by the stem of the word» , e.g. «bookaholic», «computerholic», «coffeeholic»,
«cheesaholic», «workaholic» and many others.

As far as verbs are concerned it is not typical of them to be clipped that is why there is only one
splinter to be used for forming new verbs in this way. It is the splinter «cast» formed by clipping the
beginning of the verb «broadcast». This splinter was used to form the verbs «telecast» and «abroadcast».