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The aim of this paper is to elaborate on the typology of affix changes due to reanalysis. By discussing the Polish nominal suffix /-ix-/ as resulting from morphological reduction, viz. the false subtraction of /-k-/ from /-isk-/, the supposed unidirectionality of affix changes, i.e., the irreversibility of affix growth, is questioned. Furthermore, the article points to the possible gradual nature of morphological reanalysis, in line with recent studies in syntactic reanalysis. Other types of affix changes, which were previously unidentified or deemed impossible, are also commented on and the supposed parallelism between affix reanalysis and grammaticalization as well as degrammaticalization is considered, including the role of analogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To complement existing synchronic typological studies of the marking strategies of (past) habituality, this paper details the diachronic paths leading to and from past habitual constructions. The rich corpus evidence from the diachrony of Ancient Greek demonstrates at least four source constructions: (1) past counterfactual mood (in optative and indicative), (2) futures in the past, (3) iteratives (with -sk) and (4) lexical sources with semantic affinity to habituality (volition, habit, love). It is argued that the former two acquire habitual meaning through an invited inference of epistemic certainty of the statement by the speaker: what certainly would have happened in the knowable past is implied to be characteristic of the past. The past forms with the so-called iterative -sk (3) suffix follow the cross-linguistically frequent evolution of pluractional constructions through a form of semantic bleaching: past iterative > frequentative > habitual > habitual imperfective. Lexical sources (4) first acquire habitual meaning in the present after which only the more heavily grammaticalized ones receive past habitual usage through semantic bleaching and generalization of usage (as reflected by host class expansions). The paper is concluded with a diachronic map of these paths into habituality and the paths leading from past habituality into other domains such as genericity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the evolution of grammaticalized evidentiality in the Moldavian dialect of Hungarian. It documents how the suffix -a/e, originally the marker of narrative past, became a rare, elevated marker of past tense highlighting significant past events; how it assumed a mirative overtone; and how the features ʻwitnessedʼ and ʻimmediate pastʼ, often present in mirative utterances, became inherent parts of its meaning. This grammaticalization path has resulted in an evidential system with typologically unique features. It is a two-term system based on the opposition of direct evidentiality and no evidentiality – violating the alleged universal that if a language has grammaticalized direct evidentiality, it has also grammaticalized indirect evidentiality. Mirative meaning is expressed by the same -a/e suffix that also encodes direct evidentiality – whereas it is claimed to be the extension of inferred evidentiality elsewhere. The unique properties of Moldavian Hungarian evidentiality are derived from the historical evolution of the -a/e suffix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with how English deverbal nouns with the suffix -ing have been imported into Italian. The focus is on the semantic characteristics of these borrowed nouns in Italian and, in particular, on the question of whether they have been borrowed not as simple sign-concept pairings but with argument and event structure. In previous research, it has been claimed that argument and event structure need to be licensed by some overt functional element. Hence, borrowed deverbal nouns should have argument structure and event structure only if they have an overt affix, in other words, only if the forms are not borrowed holistically as unsegmented words but retain internal morphological structure, implying that morphological borrowing of the affix has occurred. When a foreign affix combines with native bases of the recipient language, this is often considered an important criterion for morphological borrowing, which is clearly not the case for the suffix -ing in Italian. Here, it will be shown that contrary to expectation, numerous occurrences with argument and event structure may be found in a large Italian web corpus for a sample of English deverbal nouns ending in -ing, borrowed into (certain registers) of Italian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A so far overlooked sound change in the historical phonology of the Guaranian branch of the Tupi-Guarani language family is discussed in the present paper. The sound change in question, which accounts for certain synchronic morphological irregularities, consists of the insertion of the glottal fricative h in word-initial position any time the next (right-adjacent) syllable has a glottal stop ʔ as its onset consonant. Allomorphy resulting from this change is shown to affect verbal, nominal, and postpositional prefixes, as well as monomorphemic lexemes, thus unifying the treatment of synchronic patterns which are often addressed as an exclusive trait of certain verb forms. The paper ends by discussing the issue of internal classification, pointing a few limitations in past attempts to ground the subgrouping of Tupi-Guarani languages on phonological grounds, and highlighting the status of glottal prothesis as the first known phonological isogloss exclusively shared by the Guaranian varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper re-examines previous hypotheses claiming the primacy of a perfect(ive) value in certain qusheng (*-s) derivations (in particular nominalization) in Old Chinese. First, it revisits examples previously cited as having been derived from the perfect(ive), and proposes to re-classify them as resulting from three different derivational processes, nominalization, verb argument demotion, and adverbialization. Second, it focuses on Sino-Tibetan comparative data, in particular from Situ Rgyalrong, a language with severe isomorphism across four -s suffixes. Then, on the basis of morphological (especially stem changes) and syntactic criteria, it sorts out the relationship between the different -s suffixes in Situ, while suggesting multiple sources to account for the diverse functions of qusheng (*-s) in Old Chinese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tibeto-Burman languages show a drastic difference in the stability of independent and bound 2nd person forms. The 2nd person pronoun *naŋ is the most stable form in the Proto-Trans-Himalayan paradigm, preserved in almost every low-level clade, while 1st person is sometimes replaced. But 2nd person indexation in the verb is highly unstable. There were two distinct forms already in PTH, a suffix #-na, belonging to the original paradigm, and an innovative prefix #tV-, as well as an irrealis form which could be used with 2nd person reference. In daughter languages across the family we find further innovations in this category. These facts pose two questions. The first – why is 2nd person indexation so unstable? – can be interpreted in terms of politeness and face management. But this raises another question – if 2nd person indexation is inherently unstable, why is 2nd person independent pronominal reference not? The difference in stability reflects a difference in function. In Tibeto-Burman languages, with or without argument indexation, independent pronouns are always 'optional', i.e. carry some information management function such as contrast. Thus when pronominal reference to the addressee might be awkward, it can always be avoided, so there is no need to innovate face-saving substitutes for it. In contrast, in languages with argument indexation, the verbal index is obligatory, so any desire to avoid direct reference to one's interlocutor requires adopting an alternative construction which then, over time, may grammaticalize into a new 2nd person index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyse Spanish verbal constructions that accept both the clitic se and the prefix auto- in order to determine whether these formations are or are not more agentive than the corresponding non-prefixed constructions (autocriticarse vs. criticarse). The proposal arises from the discussion about the different semantic values observed in formations with auto- and explores the distinctive features of such formations in contrast to those without auto-. We carried out a twofold analysis: first, we applied a set of tests of agentivity and control to a sample of 130 verbs with auto- extracted from the Modern Spanish Reference Corpus (CREA) and compared the sample with its non-prefixed pronominal pairs (i.e. verbs with clitic se). Second, we carried out a series of surveys using similar tests with Spanish speakers to guarantee the acceptability of the corpus interpretations. We argue that prefixed constructions show a higher degree of agentivity and control by external arguments, which results in the impossibility of bidirectionally replacing these constructions with those that only have the clitic se. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expression of ad hoc categories ranges from discourse-level to syntactic and morphological strategies. Considering derivation in particular, it has been observed that also collective suffixes can be used for the identification of context-dependent sets. The aim of this paper is to investigate the relation between collectives and ad hoc categories by focusing on the Italian suffix -aglia and by discussing its diachronic relation with the Latin neuter nouns ending in -ālia. The discussion concerning the notion of collective will take into account a recent proposal that distinguishes between collective nouns, aggregate nouns, and superordinates. As will be shown, aggregate nouns are of particular interest for interpreting some Latin pluralia tantum in -ālia that denote sets of heterogeneous entities with similar properties. The same possibility to derive aggregate nouns characterizes the suffix -aglia that, when attached to proper nouns, can also convey associative meanings, or denote categories including persons and situations that share the named exemplar as a common denominator. As the analysis will show, the development of these functions correlates with the mechanisms of (inter)subjectification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a morphosyntactic analysis of personal names in Modern Hebrew, with emphasis on gender characteristics. In fact, Hebrew uses existing words for personal names, and we would expect grammatical rules to apply to names in the same manner as they apply to other words. Almost all words in the language are gender distinguished, meaning that they must be either masculine or feminine, with no neuter form, and full syntactic agreement for gender is required. While masculine words are unmarked, feminine nouns, adjectives, and participles are marked by the suffixes-a or -(V)t. Verbs and inflected prepositions present a gender differentiation as well. However, although personal names originate from these parts of speech or a combination thereof, it appears that they are not subject to all grammatical rules. Semantic differentiations for gender that were used once are now no longer evident. The most salient finding of the present study is that the new trend for personal names is to use less diversification regarding parts of speech. It mostly uses masculine nouns for both sexes, without gender markers or formal syntactic agreement. Consequently, morphosyntactic differentiations tend to disappear, turning masculine nouns into generic names and implying a process of masculinization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article is positioned at the interface between onomastics and word formation. It examines the German adjective-forming suffix-isch, which combines with proper names (Lutherisch 'Lutheran') as well as with common nouns (höllisch 'hellish'). Making use of diachronic corpora of German, the development of -isch is studied with respect to different appellative and onymic base classes. Based on graphematic evidence as well as on their referential properties, these base classes are arranged on a scale of onymicity. The most name-like categories are examined more closely. First, utilizing the distinction qualifying adjectives vs. descriptive adjectives, adjectival derivatives from personal names in German are contrasted with those in English. Furthermore, for family name as well as town name bases, diachronic variation in productivity shifts of -ischderivatives and competing derivational patterns is investigated. Based on the results, it can be hypothesized that the more name-like the words are, the more instability is to be expected in the diachronic derivational patterns, also observable in a high degree of cross-linguistic variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we introduce the effect of “constructional contamination”. In constructional contamination, a subset of the instances of a target construction deviate in their realization, due to a superficial resemblance they share with instances of a contaminating construction. We claim that this contaminating effect bears testimony to the hypothesis that language users do not always execute a full parse while interpreting and producing sentences. Instead, they may rely on what has been called “shallow parsing”, i. e., chunking the utterances into large, unanalyzed exemplars that may extend across constituent borders. We propose several measures to quantify constructional contamination in corpus data. To evaluate these measures, the Dutch partitive genitive is taken under scrutiny as a target construction of constructional contamination. In this case study, it is shown that neighboring constructions play a crucial role in determining the presence or absence of the -s suffix among instances of the partitive genitive. The different measures themselves, however, are not construction- specific, and can readily be used to track constructional contamination in other case studies as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blocking, as traditionally defined, refers to a situation where the mere presence of a form or pattern in language preempts the application of another form or pattern. Recent studies on blocking, especially in derivational morphology, have provided many examples which seriously cast doubt on the assumed discreteness of the notion. Using data from sizeable corpora, this paper seeks to address this issue in inflectional morphology. Within that domain, it is illustrated that - throughout time - there may have been an alternation between competing morphological patterns. In particular, pluralization by suffixation and transfixation, may have alternated in assuming the role of a blocker. On the basis of frequency data of inflectional classes in New Persian, it is shown that whenever there is an increase in the usage of either of these two strategies, there is also a decrease in application of the other. This alternation follows a neat and systematic pattern strongly suggesting that transfixation and suffixation have relative blocking effects on each other. It can therefore be concluded that there is essentially no need for one form, or a number of forms, to be eliminated in favor of a more productive one. In fact, competing forms can co-exist, decline and flourish alternatively, and thrive for centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze the interaction between prefixes, verbs, and abstract argument structure constructions, using as a testing ground the locative alternation. It has been assumed that in order to participate in the locative alternation, a verb must specify a manner of motion from which a change of state can be obtained (see, for instance, Steven Pinker's Learnability and cognition, 1989). However, this generalization does not take into account the argument structure effects involved in verbal prefixation in Slavic where some change-of-location verbs can appear in the change-of-state variant, when headed by a resultative prefix. In Olbishevska's generative-derivational analysis of the locative alternation in Russian, it is claimed that resultative prefixes are derivational morphemes subcategorizing for a location argument. While I agree that it is the resultative prefix that makes the alternation possible, I propose that it is not the case that a new verb with a different argument structure is derived by means of prefixation, but rather that it is the verb that integrates into the prefixed change-of-state variant. I analyze the change-of-state variant in the spirit of Goldberg's Construction Grammar and Langacker's Cognitive Grammar approach and show that resultative prefixes are not abstract syntactic features, but rather that each prefixed change-of-state construction is based on a specific configuration between the locatum and the location. I demonstrate that the interaction between resultative prefixes, alternating verbs, and the more abstract change-of-state variant is driven by semantic coherence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the verb system of the three known Zamucoan languages, namely Old Zamuco, described by the Jesuit father Ignace Chomé in the first half of the eighteenth century, plus Ayoreo and Chamacoco, still actively spoken in the Chaco area between Bolivia and Paraguay. The analysis has confirmed the internal consistency of this language family, allowing us to build a plausible reconstruction of the Proto-Zamucoan verb system. The analysis has unsurprisingly pointed out Old Zamuco as the most conservative language among the three; Chamacoco, by contrast, appears to be the most innovative. This notwithstanding, Chamacoco also has conservative features that turn out to be particularly relevant for the purpose of linguistic reconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the first detailed description of the two causative derivations in Japhug Rgyalrong is presented, based on a corpus of spontaneous speech. Two new pathways of grammaticalization are proposed. First, it is shown that the causative derives from a special type of denominal derivation. Second, a previously undocumented development from the causative to the abilitative derivation is described. Lastly, the implications of these grammaticalization hypotheses for the reconstruction of Sino-Tibetan morphology as a whole are evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The No Blur Principle (NBP) or Vocabulary Clarity (VC) approach (Carstairs- McCarthy 1994, 2010) is a possible restriction on the behaviour of inflectional affixes (grammatical units), originally motivated by an analogy with words (lexical units). The restriction is grounded in synonymy avoidance, in the observation that 'Every two forms contrast in meaning' (Clark 1993) and in behaviour in multivocabular situations, where speakers have more than one vocabulary although they have only one grammar (e.g. Dyirbal, Javanese). There have not been many suggestions for restrictions on the behaviour of affixes in the morphological literature, so the approach deserves attention. In this article, the NBP or VC-approach is applied to Faroese noun declensions. While these Faroese data seem problematic at first, it is argued that they can be perfectly accommodated within the NBP/ VC-aproach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

German Glide Formation converts /i/ to [j] before vowels, e.g. ‘Spain’, but the rule is consistently blocked in neologisms containing the suffix – esk, e.g. hippiesk [hrpiℇsk] / *[hrpjℇsk]. It is argued below that the underapplication of Glide Formation in such examples follows from a requirement that the stem in a derived word must be identical to the unaffixed base. The base in such examples will be shown to be a free-standing morpheme as opposed to a bound root. The analysis proposed will be shown to be supported in additional examples in which Glide Formation is blocked from applying to the [i] preceding the suffix – aner, but only if the suffix follows a free-standing morpheme, e.g. ‘adherent of Schumi (Michael Schumacher)’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A remarkable feature of the pronominal clitic complex in Walmajarri is the fact that dual and plural subject pronouns are marked discontinuously. The purpose of this note is to give an historical account of the construction of bound pronouns with an attempt to reconstruct the underlying free pronouns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adjective fæst is well attested in the Old English corpus, both as a simple adjective and in compounds. There are also numerous instances of formations in which it has apparently lost its usual status as a free morpheme and instead developed into an adjectival suffix. While highlighting the similarities to other grammaticalisation chains, the present study throws light on the development of (-)fæst by analysing the material from the corpus, tracing its transformation from a second member in a certain type of compounds (e.g. wordfæst ‘firm with regard to one's word’) to an adjectival suffix (e.g. sige- fæst ‘victorious, triumphant’), possibly with multiple meanings, and subsequent abandonment in later stages of English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, blending is defined as deliberate extragrammatical compounding. As such, it is distinct from non-deliberate creation such as contamination, from regular compounding, as well as from other extragrammatical morphological techniques such as shortening. For blending defined in this way, a typology is proposed according to the degree of transparency. This ranges from very transparent so-called "telescope blends", such as Amtsschimmelpilz 'red tape fungus' < Amtsschimmel 'red tape' x Schimmelpilz 'fungus', to completely opaque "fragment blends", such as Cujasuma < Cuba x Java x Sumatra (a brand of tobacco). This scale is tested on two corpuses of blends containing satirical blends and brand names, respectively. The satirical blends, whose effect depends to a large degree on their intelligibility, do, in fact, exhibit a higher preference for transparency than the brand names, for which transparency is functional to a certain degree only. This suggests the following conclusions: Language users have a very precise intuition for different degrees of transparency and are able to use this purposefully. Therefore, basing a typology of blends on transparency is more to the point than basing it on purely distributional features, as is commonly the case. Even in the diachronic perspective, the language users' intuition regarding phonological features ensuring the transparency of intricately complex words has been instrumental in shaping the strongly inflectional forms of NHG inflection and derivation implying vowel changes in addition to suffixation. It is this very intuition which underlies not only normal morphological competence, but also the extragrammatical competence which enables language users to develop and make creative use of extragrammatical techniques such as blending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the nature of Modern Hebrew. As a Semitic language. Classical Hebrew was a synthetic language that typically added grammatical elements through suffixation of a single character. In contrast. Modern Hebrew appears to be moving in the direction of European languages and evolving into an analytic language, with a clear preference for independent grammatical constructions. This tendency is well recognized in spoken language and in the journalistic register, however it has yet to be proven with regard to literature. The research presented here attempts to do just that. The study examined three novels by Haim Be'er, one of Israel's foremost literary figures. His works reflect an interesting development in the linguistic trend discussed above. In his first book, Notsot (1979), the author's writing is characterized by substantial use of suffixed constructions. In his second book, 'Et Hazamir (1987), Be'er alternatively uses suffixed and independent constructions. In his most recent book, Xavalim (1998), the majority of constructions are independent. The explanation for this is that the norms of written Modern Hebrew have changed and that this change is expressed in the shift of literary language toward spoken and journalistic language, which are influenced by European languages and specifically by English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hebrew inflection is primarily suffixal. Suffixes also serve as means for deriving substantives. Although derivational and inflectional phonetic outputs overlap under certain conditions, analysis of either the base morpheme structure, the suffixes, or the phonological processes operating in word formation, clearly distinguishes between inflection and derivation. While both include a limited number of suffixes, derivation is tolerant of a larger variety of base morphemes and suffixes than is inflection. The differences involve features such as stems, suffixes, stress patterns, syntactic structures and semantic values, syllabic structures, and dynamic changes. The relationship between lexicon and grammar is considered in the processes involved. Said processes prove that inflected word forms must be accessed by derivational processes in some cases, hence lexically determined, whereas derivation is relevant to grammar as well. The discussion will lead to the formulation of a possible model that supports the autonomy of morphology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with several related issues concerning English words formed with certain prefixes. First, it explores the relationships and constraints on full lexemes and semantic units smaller than lexemes. Traditionally, lexical semantics has concentrated on lexemes, devoting relatively little attention to semantic units that are smaller or larger than words. Secondly, among morphologists, there is a controversy concerning the nature of affixes; namely, whether they are ordinary signs. The third topic, and the one that most of the paper deals with is a description of the semantics of English prefixes. Most English prefixes have two interesting properties, they are iterative and they combine freely. Finally, a recent paper by Samuel J. Keyser and Roeper on the prefix re- is discussed.

This article is a reply to Dressler & Merlini, who try to offer a solution for the semantics of complex words formed by diminutive suffixes by assuming that the suffix functions as a kind of modifier of the bases to which it is attached. This assumption leads to the conclusion that, within semantics, diminutive suffixes are a kind of quantificational devices that natural languages possess. This paper argues against treating the diminutive suffixes as a kind of quantificational device that modifies the base to which it is attached.

Hebrew plural formation is traditionally viewed as an inflectional grammatical process. Its productivity in categories such as adjectives and participles places it within grammar, where the grammatical gender determines the suffixes and the phonological changes, e.g. gadol-gdolím / gdolót 'big (sg.m-pl.m/pl.f)', melamed - melamdím / melamdót 'teach(er) (sg.m-pl.m/pl.f)'. However, noun pluralization places the inflectional process in the lexicon for reasons such as: a. the grammatical gender does not necessarily determine the plural suffix, e.g. gir - girím 'chalk-s (m, sg/pl)', kir - kirót 'wall-s (m, sg/pl)'; b. certain semantic features seem to prevent pluralization of some nouns, but not exclusively, e.g. 'ademet - (?*) 'adamót 'rubella (f, st/*pl)', but nazelet - nazalót 'head cold-s (f, sg/pl)'); c. although semantically restricted, some abstract nouns can be pluralized. Nevertheless, they are phonetically prohibited when the singular ends in +iyut. The article gives a full description of the plural formation in Hebrew and suggests the lexical layer solution in which relating each word into the appropriate lexical layer will endorse the application of either a restricted lexical rule or a general grammatical rule, hence bridging between the Weak vs. Strong Lexicalist Hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the modern English language. In Modern English, names of ordinal numbers are regularly derived from those of cardinal numbers by suffixation. Such treatments as there are of the distribution of the two forms of the ordinal suffix give a number of apparently conflicting accounts. It should be noted that these rules are stated in terms that confuse the distinction between sounds and letters. Normally, ordinal numerals are derived from cardinal numeral stems, and of these, the common ones all end in a small subset of the otherwise possible morpheme finals of English. There are a number of theoretical implications of the facts described for understanding of linguistic behavior. First, given the paucity of the usual ordinal forms, a wide range of logically distinct formulations is consistent with the facts. It is significant that different speakers treat nonce forms in the same way. It is even more significant that the rule, which covers the nonce forms, is neither the most general nor the least general one of the logical possibilities