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Stem (linguistics))
A stem, in linguistics, is the combination of the basic form of a word (called the root) plus any derivational morphemes, but excluding inflectional elements. This means, alternatively, that the stem is the form of the word to which inflectional morphemes can be added, if applicable.
For example, the root of the English verb form destabilized is stabil- (alternate form of stable); the stem is de·stabil·ize, which includes the derivational affixes de- and -ize, but not the inflectional past tense suffix -(e)d.
The definition of stem usually includes the possibility of zero derivation, so in fact any root is also a stem. That is, if X is a root, then the stem X is the root X plus a zero derivational affix.
In languages with very little inflection, such as English and Mandarin Chinese, the stem is usually not distinct from the "normal" form of the word (the lemma, citation or dictionary form). However, in other languages, stems are more noticeable since the citation forms almost always carry some non-zero inflection. For example, the English verb stem take is indistinguishable from its present tense (except in the third person singular); but the equivalent Spanish verb stem tom- never appears as such, since it is cited with the infinitive inflection (tomar) and always appears in actual speech as a non-finite (infinite or participle) or conjugated form.
Latin and Greek
Latin and Greek nouns often have a distinct stem to which suffixed inflections are added for the oblique cases and which cannot be deduced from the nominative case (lemma) and must be given explicitly in lexicons. This oblique stem is one of the principal parts of the noun. It is most often used as a combining form in English derivations; for example, Latin nox means "night" (as in equinox), but the stem noct- is used for nocturnal. In Greek, φῶς phōs ("light") has the oblique stem φωτ- (phōt[o]-) which appears in photography and photosynthesis.
Latin and Greek verbs have distinct stems for different tenses. Latin scribo ("I write"), for example, has a present stem scrib-, which can be found in the English words scribe and prescribe, while the perfect stem script- is found in prescription and postscript. Likewise, Greek γράφω gráphō has a present stem graph-, found in photography and graphics, and a perfect stem gramm- which is found in telegram and grammar.
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