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
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TABLE OF CONTENTS



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



1. Basic concepts

1.1. What is a word? 4

1.2. Studying word-formation

1.3. Inflection and derivation

1.4. Summary

Further reading 23

Exercises



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 27

2.2. Allomorphy

2.3. Establishing word-formation rules

2.4. Multiple affixation

2.5. Summary

Further reading

Exercises



3. Productivity and the mental lexicon 1

3.1. Introduction: What is productivity? 551

3.2. Possible and actual words 1

3.3. Complex words in the lexicon

3.4. Measuring productivity



1 Pages 55-57 appear twice due to software-induced layout-alterations that occur when the word for

windows files are converted into PDF.
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3.5. Constraining productivity 73

3.5.1. Pragmatic restrictions

3.5.2. Structural restrictions

3.5.3. Blocking

3.6. Summary

Further reading 85

Exercises



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 109

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 131

Exercises



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? 143

5.2. Prosodic morphology

5.2.1. Truncations: Truncated names,

-y diminutives and clippings

5.2.2. Blends
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5.3. Abbreviations and acronyms

5.4. Summary

Further reading

Exercises



6. Compounding

6.1. Recognizing compounds

6.1.1. What are compounds made of?

6.1.2. More on the structure of compounds:

the notion of head

6.1.3. Stress in compounds

6.1.4. Summary

6.2. An inventory of compounding patterns

6.3. Nominal compounds

6.3.1 Headedness

6.3.2. Interpreting nominal compounds

6.4. Adjectival compounds 194

6.5. Verbal compounds

6.6. Neo-classical compounds

6.7. Compounding: syntax or morphology?

6.8. Summary

Further reading

Exercises



7. Theoretical issues: modeling word -formation

7.1. Introduction: Why theory?

7.2. The phonology-morphology interaction: lexical phonology

7.2.1. An outline of the theory of lexical phonology

7.2.2. Basic insights of lexical phonology

7.2.3. Problems with lexical phonology

7.2.4. Alternative theories 222

7.3. The nature of word-formation rules
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7.3.1. The problem: word -based versus morpheme-based