Isu Imbuhan /di–i/ Bahasa Melayu: Apitan atau Gabungan

Besides being classified as a prefix and a suffix respectively, formatives /di-/ and /-i/ are also categorized as a verbal circumfix /di-i/ in malay (nik safiah et.al. 1989, asraf 1990, hashim 1993). the affix is categorized as circumfix because its morphological process applies simultaneously. words that are derived from / di-/ prefixation alone is regarded ungrammatical. this argument is supported by lexical evidence that shows lexical words such as diakui and dimulai exist in the malay lexicon, but words such as *diaku and *dimula are unacceptable and ungrammatical. in contrast with the previous analysis, this paper suggests that the formative /di-i/ is a combination of the prefix /-i/ and the suffix /di-/. morphologically, the affixation process operates in stages, which begins with/-i/ suffixation followed by /di-/ prefixation. the claim is supported by lexical evidence obtained from the data based corpus of ukm-dbp, and motivated by the phonological rules that operate at the prefix and suffix boundaries. the interaction between phonological and morphological rules that apply in the process of affixation will be analyzed by using the theoretical framework oflexical phonology and morphology.