Form/meaning asymmetry in word formation
The case of non- nouns in French
The paper deals with the French morphological prefixation pattern [non-N]
(non-qualification ‘non-qualification’, non-Italien ‘non-Italian’, and
non-ville ‘non-city’). It discusses the form/meaning asymmetry displayed by this pattern and its
compositionality. It is shown that the general pattern [non-N] actually corresponds to three distinct
subconstructions, i.e. distinct form/meaning pairings. Although pragmatic factors may be seen as presenting a challenge to the
compositionality of these constructions, it is argued that [non-N]s must be seen as compositional as long as
compositionality is defined not only in terms of truth-conditional semantics, but also of pragmatics.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Data and methodology
- 2.1Data collection
- 2.2Annotation of the base nouns
- 2.3Annotation of the derived nouns
- 2.3.1Tests for the ontological reading
- 2.3.2Tests for the classifying reading
- 2.3.3Tests for the qualifying reading
- 2.3.4Tests: Summary
- 2.4Data: Frequencies
- 3.Description of the [non-N] pattern
- 3.1One form, three meanings?
- 3.2Three forms, three meanings: Three [non-N] constructions
- 3.2.1Back to the notion of construction
- 3.2.2The three [non-N] subconstructions
- 4.The question of compositionality
- 4.1Compositionality and constructions
- 4.2Compositionality of [non-N]s
- 4.2.1Prefixal vs. adverbial constructions in non(-)
- 4.2.2The role of context
- 5.Conclusion
-
Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Abbreviations
-
References
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