Word Formation

Word-formation in English

by

Ingo Plag Universität Siegen

in press

Cambridge University Press Series ‘Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics’

Draft version of September 27, 2002

i

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1

1. Basic concepts 1.1. What is a word? 1.2. Studying word-formation 1.3. Inflection and derivation 1.4. Summary Further reading Exercises

4 4 12 18 23 23 24

2. Studying complex words 2.1. Identifying morphemes 2.1.1. The morpheme as the minimal linguistic sign 2.1.2. Problems with the morpheme: the mapping of form and meaning 2.2. Allomorphy 2.3. Establishing word-formation rules 2.4. Multiple affixation 2.5. Summary Further reading Exercises

25 25 25

27 33 38 50 53 54 55

3. Productivity and the mental lexicon 3.1. Introduction: What is productivity? 3.2. Possible and actual words 3.3. Complex words in the lexicon 3.4. Measuring productivity

551 551 561 59 64

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ii 3.5. Constraining productivity 3.5.1. Pragmatic restrictions 3.5.2. Structural restrictions 3.5.3. Blocking 3.6. Summary Further reading Exercises 73 74 75 79 84 85 85

4. Affixation 4.1. What is an affix? 4.2. How to investigate affixes: More on methodology 4.3. General properties of English affixation 4.4. Suffixes 4.4.1. Nominal suffixes 4.4.2. Verbal suffixes 4.4.3. Adjectival suffixes 4.4.4. Adverbial suffixes 4.5. Prefixes 4.6. Infixation 4.7. Summary Further reading Exercises

90 90 93 98 109 109 116 118 123 123 127 130 131 131

5. Derivation without affixation 5.1. Conversion 5.1.1. The directionality of conversion 5.1.2. Conversion or zero-affixation? 5.1.3. Conversion: Syntactic or morphological? 5.2. Prosodic morphology 5.2.1. Truncations: Truncated names, -y diminutives and clippings 5.2.2....