Lexical semantics and diachronic morphology : the development of -hood, -dom and -ship in the history of English / Carola Trips.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Trips, Carola.

Series:

Linguistische Arbeiten (Max Niemeyer Verlag) ; 527.

Linguistische Arbeiten, 0344-6727 ; 527

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Word formation--History.

English language.

English language--Suffixes and prefixes.

English language--Semantics, Historical.

Historical lexicology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (277 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Tubingen : Max Niemeyer Verlag, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book is the most comprehensive study to date of the development of the three suffixes -hood, -dom and -ship in the history of English. Based on data from annotated corpora it provides an in depth investigation from Old English to Modern English and shows that structurally the three suffixes developed from syntactic heads (nouns) via morphological heads in compounds to morphological heads in derivations. Being an instance of morphologisation the rise of suffixes clearly shows that word formation is not part of the syntactic module. This development is triggered by semantic change, more precisely, by the semantics of the elements which keep their salient meanings and develop further meanings through metonymic shifts, finally leading to underspecified meanings. The findings are analysed in a revised version of Lieber's (2004) framework to account for the diachronic facts and have far-reaching consequences for morphological theory since they show that derivational suffixes bear meaning and hence contribute to processes of lexicalisation which is clear evidence for sign-based models and against, for example, Separationist assumptions.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Table of Contents

List of Tables

List of Abbreviations and Acronyms

1. Introduction

2. The development of suffixes

3. Frequency, productivity and creativity

4. The data

5. -hood, -dom and -ship as rivals in word formation processes

6. A lexical-semantic analysis of word-formations with -hood, -dom and -ship

7. Theoretical consequences of morphological change

8. Conclusion

Backmatter

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Habilitation Universität Stuttgart 2007.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-254) and index.

ISBN:

9786612296345

9781282296343

1282296345

9783484971318

3484971312

OCLC:

537194251