Cover not available
Part of
Competition in Word-Formation
Edited by Alexandra Bagasheva, Akiko Nagano and Vincent Renner
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 284] 2024
► pp. 1–31

Chapter 1
Towards a competition-based word-formation theory

Core research questions and major hypotheses

ORCID logo | University of Shizuoka
ORCID logo | Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”
ORCID logo | Université Lumière Lyon 2

This chapter provides an overview of the study of competition in word-formation theories, drawing on the findings of the ten chapters collected in this volume and other recent contributions. It explores recurrent issues regarding (i) the triggers and outcomes of competition, (ii) the variety of competing forms, and (iii) the synonymy condition for competition. With respect to the first set of research questions, a binary typology of form-based and meaning-based resolutions is identified, with each pole providing multiple ways to resolve competition. Next, for the form-related research questions, the distinction between macro‑ and micro-level competition is significant. Finally, the synonymy condition is reassessed through a careful comparison between morphologically simplex and complex lexemes, leading to a definition of competing rivals in word-formation as a set of formally suppletive morphological processes that produce propositional, near, or sense synonyms.

Keywords: morphology, word-formation, competition, rivalry, affixation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Fundamental questions
    • 2.1Onomasiological and semasiological perspectives
    • 2.2Triggers and outcomes of competition
  • 3.Questions about form
    • 3.1Competition between instantiations: Doublets and clusters
    • 3.2Competition between morphological processes
    • 3.3Form-based resolutions
      • 3.3.1The marginalization or total loss of a rivaling form
      • 3.3.2Blocking
      • 3.3.3Base selection
  • 4.Questions about meaning
    • 4.1Lexical and word-formational semantics
    • 4.2The synonymy condition in competition
    • 4.3Meaning-based resolutions
      • 4.3.1Distinguishing features or contexts of propositional synonymy
      • 4.3.2Distinguishing features or contexts of near synonymy and sense synonymy
        • 4.3.2.1Lexical semantic features
        • 4.3.2.2Syntagmatic contexts
  • 5.Macro-level competition
    • 5.1Macro-level competition in transcategorial change
    • 5.2Macro-level competition in other lexical functions of word-formation
    • 5.3Macro-level competition beyond the boundaries of word-formation
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 8 May 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.284.01nag
References (105)
Acquaviva, Paolo, Lenci, Alessandro, Paradis, Carita & Raffaelli, Ida
2020 Models of lexical meaning. In Word Knowledge and Word Usage: A Cross-Disciplinary Guide to the Mental Lexicon, Vito Pirrelli, Ingo Plag & Wolfgang U. Dressler (eds), 353–404. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Akita, Kimi & Murasugi, Keiko
2022 Binomial adjectival doublets in Japanese: A Relational Morphology account. Morphology 32: 281–297. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Andreou, Marios & Lieber, Rochelle
2019 Aspectual and quantificational properties of deverbal conversion and ‑ing nominalizations: The power of context. English Language & Linguistics 24(2): 333–363. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Arndt-Lappe, Sabine
2023 Different lexicons make different rivals. Word Structure 16(1): 24–48. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Aronoff, Mark
1976 Word Formation in Generative Grammar. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
2019 Competitors and alternants in linguistic morphology. In Competition in Inflection and Word-Formation, Franz Rainer, Francesco Gardani, Wolfgang U. Dressler & Hans Christian Luschützky (eds), 39–66. Cham: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2020 -less and -free. In Complex Words: Advances in Morphology, Lívia Körtvélyessy & Pavol Štekauer (eds), 55–64. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2023 Three ways of looking at morphological rivalry. Word Structure 16(1): 49–62. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Aronoff, Mark & Lindsay, Mark
2014 Productivity, blocking, and lexicalization. In The Oxford Handbook of Derivational Morphology, Rochelle Lieber & Pavol Štekauer (eds), 67–83. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baeskow, Heike
2015 Stacking as a reflex and indicator of (proto-)typical selectional restrictions. In Semantics of Complex Words, Laurie Bauer, Lívia Körtvélyessy & Pavol Štekauer (eds), 241–276. Cham: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bagasheva, Alexandra
2017 Comparative semantic concepts in affixation. In Competing Patterns in English Affixation, Juan Santana-Lario & Salvador Valera (eds), 119–161. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Bauer, Laurie
1983 English Word-Formation. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2001a Morphological Productivity. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2001b Introducing Linguistic Morphology, 2nd edition. Edinburgh: EUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006 Competition in English word-formation. In The Handbook of the History of English, Ans van Kemenade & Bettelou Los (eds), 177–198. Malden, MA: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2019 Notions of paradigm and their value in word-formation. Word Structure 12(2): 153–175. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2023 The birth and death of affixes and other morphological processes in English derivation. Languages 8: 244. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bauer, Laurie, Valera, Salvador & Díaz-Negrillo, Ana
2010 Affixation vs. conversion: The resolution of conflicting patterns. In Variation and Change in Morphology, Franz Rainer, Wolfgang U. Dressler, Dieter Kastovsky & Hans Christian Luschützky (eds), 15–32. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bauer, Laurie, Lieber, Rochelle & Plag, Ingo
2013 The Oxford Reference Guide to English Morphology. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bauer, Laurie, Körtvélyessy, Lívia & Štekauer, Pavol
(eds) 2015 Semantics of Complex Words. Cham: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Berg, Thomas
2014 Competition as a unifying concept for the study of language. The Mental Lexicon 9 (2): 338–370. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bobkova, Natalia & Montermini, Fabio
2023 A quantitative approach to doublets in Russian denominal adjective construction. Word Structure 16(1): 63–86. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Booij, Geert
2010 Construction Morphology. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Cetnarowska, Bożena
1993 The Syntax, Semantics and Derivation of Bare Nominalisations in English. Katowice: Uniwersytet Śląski.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam
2005 Three factors in language design. Linguistic Inquiry 36(1): 1–22. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cruse, D. Alan
2011 Meaning in Language: An Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics (3rd ed.). Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
De Smet, Hendrik, D’hoedt, Frauke, Fonteyn, Lauren & Van Goethem, Kristel
2018 The changing functions of competing forms: Attraction and differentiation. Cognitive Linguistics 29(2): 197–234. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Denistia, Karlina, Shafaei-Bajestan, Elnaz & Baayen, R. Harald
2022 Exploring semantic differences between the Indonesian prefixes PE‑ and PEN‑ using a vector space model. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory 18(3): 573–598. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dixon, R. M. W.
2014 Making New Words: Morphological Derivation in English. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Díaz-Negrillo, Ana
2017 On the identification of competition in English derivational morphemes: The case of ‑dom, -hood and ‑ship. In Competing Patterns in English Affixation, Juan Santana-Lario & Salvador Valera (eds), 119–161. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Fábregas, Antonio
2010 A syntactic account of affix rivalry in Spanish nominalizations. In The Syntax of Nominalizations across Languages and Frameworks, Artemis Alexiadou & Monika Rathert (eds), 67–92. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2015 Structural sensitivity as an argument for semantic underspecification. In Semantics of Complex Words, Laurie Bauer, Lívia Körtvélyessy & Pavol Štekauer (eds), 217–240. Cham: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2016 Deconstructing the non-episodic readings of Spanish deverbal adjectives. Word Structure 9(1): 1–41. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fellbaum, Christiane
2015 Lexical relations. In The Oxford Handbook of the Word, John R. Taylor (ed), 350–363. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fernández-Alcaina, Cristina
2017 Availability and unavailability in English word-formation. In Competing Patterns in English Affixation, Juan Santana-Lario & Salvador Valera (eds), 163–205. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Fernández-Domínguez, Jésus
2017 Methodological and procedural issues in the quantification of morphological competition. In Competing Patterns in English Affixation, Juan Santana-Lario & Salvador Valera (eds), 67–117. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Fradin, Bernard
2019 Competition in derivation: What can we learn from French doublets in ‑age and ‑ment? In Competition in Inflection and Word-Formation, Franz Rainer, Francesco Gardani, Wolfgang U. Dressler & Hans Christian Luschützky (eds), 67–93. Cham: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gardani, Francesco, Rainer, Franz & Luschützky, Hans Christian
2019 Competition in morphology: A historical outline. In Competition in Inflection and Word-Formation, Franz Rainer, Francesco Gardani, Wolfgang U. Dressler & Hans Christian Luschützky (eds), 3–38. Cham: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gause, Georgyi Frantsevich
1934 The Struggle for Existence. Baltimore, MD: Williams and Wilkins.Google Scholar
Goldberg, Adele E.
2019 Explain Me This: Creativity, Competition, and the Partial Productivity of Constructions. Princeton: PUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gries, Stefan Th
2004 Isn’t that fantabulous? How similarity motivates intentional morphological blends in English. In Language, Culture, and Mind, Michel Achard & Suzanne Kemmer (eds), 415–428. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
2012 Quantitative corpus data on blend formation: Psycho‑ and cognitive-linguistic perspectives. In Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Lexical Blending, Vincent Renner, François Maniez & Pierre J. L. Arnaud (eds), 145–167. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gunkel, Lutz & Zifonun, Gisela
2008 Constraints on relational-adjective noun constructions: A comparative view on English, German and French. Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik 56: 283–302. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Guzmán Naranjo, Matías & Bonami, Olivier
2023 A distributional assessment of rivalry in word formation. Word Structure 16(1): 87–114. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hamawand, Zeki
2007 Suffixal Rivalry in Adjectival Formation: A Cognitive-Corpus Analysis. London: Equinox.Google Scholar
Hegedűs, Irén
2014 Affix doublets and affix rivalry in the history of English. Argumentum 10: 312–324.Google Scholar
Huyghe, Richard & Wauquier, Marine
2021 Distributional semantics insights on agentive suffix rivalry in French. Word Structure 14(3): 354–391. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Huyghe, Richard & Varvara, Rossella
2023a Affixal rivalry: Theoretical and methodological challenges. Word Structure 16(1): 1–23. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(eds) 2023b Quantitative Approaches to Affix Rivalry, Thematic issue of Word Structure 16(1).Google Scholar
Hüning, Matthias & Schlücker, Barbara
2015 Multi-word expressions. In Word-formation: An International Handbook of the Languages of Europe, Vol. 1, Peter Müller, Ingeborg Ohnheiser, Susan Olsen & Franz Rainer (eds), 450–467. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ishida, Takashi & Naya, Ryohei
2022 Presidential company vs. president company: Very subtle but crucial semantic differences between RA-N and N-N. Tsukuba English Studies 41: 19–32.Google Scholar
Kaunisto, Mark
2007 Variation and Change in the Lexicon: A Corpus-based Analysis of Adjectives in English Ending in -ic and -ical. Amsterdam: Rodopi. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kawaletz, Lea & Plag, Ingo
2015 Predicting the semantics of English nominalizations: A frame-based analysis of ‑ment suffixation. In The Semantics of Complex Words, Laurie Bauer, Lívia Körtvélyessy & Pavol Štekauer (eds), 289–319. Cham: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kikuchi, Yuki
2020 An analysis of N-free X and N‑less X based on Construction Morphology. JELS 37: 59–65.Google Scholar
Kiparsky, Paul
2010 Dvandvas, blocking, and the associative: The bumpy ride from phrase to word. Language 86(2): 302–331. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Koehl, Aurore & Lignon, Stéphanie
2014 Property nouns with ‑ité and ‑itude: Formal alternation and morphopragmatics or the sad-itude of the AitéN. Morphology 24: 351–376. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lara-Clares, Cristina
2017 Competition in Present-day English nominalization by zero-affixation and ‑ation. In Competing Patterns in English Affixation, Juan Santana-Lario & Salvador Valera (eds), 207–244. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Lenci, Alessandro
2018 Distributional models of word meaning. Annual Review of Linguistics 4: 151–171. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Levin, Beth & Rappaport Hovav, Malka
2013 Lexicalized meaning and manner/result complementarity. In Studies in the Composition and Decomposition of Event Predicates, Boban Arsenijevič, Berit Gehrke & Rafael Marín (eds), 49–70. Dordrecht: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, Ping & MacWhinney, Brian
2012 Competition model. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, Carol A. Chapelle (ed), 1–5. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Online Library. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lieber, Rochelle
2004 Morphology and Lexical Semantics. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2016 English Nouns: The Ecology of Nominalization. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2023 Ghost aspect and double plurality: On the aspectual semantics of eventive conversion and ‑ing nominalizations in English. In The Semantics of Derivational Morphology: Theory, Methods, Evidence, Sven Kotowski & Ingo Plag (eds), 15–36. Berlin: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2024 Derivation and semantic theory: Foundations, frameworks, and outcomes. To appear in English Linguistics 40.Google Scholar
Lieber, Rochelle & Plag, Ingo
2022 The semantics of conversion nouns and ‑ing nominalizations: A quantitative and theoretical perspective. Journal of Linguistics 58(2): 307–343. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lindsay, Mark & Aronoff, Mark
2013 Natural selection in self-organizing morphological systems. In Morphology in Toulouse: Selected proceedings of Décembrettes 7, Fabio Montermini, Gilles Boyé & Jesse Tseng (eds), 133–153. Munich: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar
McCulloch, Gretchen
2019 Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language. New York, NY: Riverhead Books.Google Scholar
Missud, Alice & Villoing, Florence
2020 The morphology of rival ‑ion, -age and ‑ment selected verbal bases. Lexique 26: 29–52. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Moravcsik, Edith
2014 Introduction. In Competing Motivations in Grammar and Usage, Brian MacWhinney, Andrej Malchukov & Edith Moravcsik (eds), 1–16. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Murphy, Lynne M.
2010 Lexical Meaning. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Naccarato, Chiara
2019 Agentive (para)synthetic compounds in Russian: A quantitative study of rival constructions. Morphology 29(1): 1–30. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nagano, Akiko
2008 Conversion and Back-Formation in English. Kaitakusha: Tokyo.Google Scholar
2023 Affixal rivalry and its purely semantic resolution among English derived adjectives. Journal of Linguistics 59(3): 499–530. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nagano, Akiko & Shimada, Masaharu
2014 Morphological theory and orthography: Kanji as a representation of lexemes. Journal of Linguistics 50(2): 323–364. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Naya, Ryohei
2017 Competition in word-formation: Deverbal nominalization by ‑ment vs. conversion. JELS 34: 271–277.Google Scholar
Nishiyama, Kunio & Nagano, Akiko
2020 Keitairon to Rekisikon (Morphology and the Lexicon). Kaitakusha: Tokyo.Google Scholar
OED = Oxford English Dictionary
online edition. [URL]
Plag, Ingo
1999 Morphological Productivity: Structural Constraints in English Derivation. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Plag, Ingo & Balling, Laura Winther
2020 Derivational morphology: An integrated perspective on some fundamental questions. In Word Knowledge and Word Usage: A Cross-disciplinary Guide to the Mental Lexicon, Vito Pirrelli, Ingo Plag & Wolfgang U. Dressler (eds), 295–335. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Prince, Alan & Smolensky, Paul
2002 Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction in Generative Grammar. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Radimský, Jan & Štichauer, Pavel
2021 Nomina actionis in the diachrony of Italian: A paradigm-based model of competition. Lingue e Linguaggio 20(1): 33–55. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Raffelsiefen, Renate
2010 Idiosyncrasy, regularity, and synonymy in derivational morphology: Evidence for default word interpretation strategies. In New Impulses in Word Formation, Susan Olsen (ed), 173–232. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.Google Scholar
Rainer, Franz
2013 Can relational adjectives really express any relation? An onomasiological perspective. SKASE Journal of Theoretical Linguistics 10(1): 12–40.Google Scholar
Rainer, Franz, Gardani, Francesco, Dressler, Wolfgang U. & Luschützky, Hans Christian
(eds) 2019 Competition in Inflection and Word-Formation. Dordrecht: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Renner, Vincent
2020 An ecosystem view of English word-formation. The Mental Lexicon 15(1): 4–20. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rodrigues, Alexandra Soares
2015 Semantic rivalry between affixes: the case of Portuguese nominalisers. In Mediterranean Morphology Meetings 9: 134–137. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Santana-Lario, Juan & Valera, Salvador
(eds) 2017 Competing Patterns in English Affixation. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Schirakowski, Barbara
2020 (No) competition between deverbal nouns and nominalized infinitives in Spanish. Borealis: An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics 9(2): 257–283. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schmid, Hans-Jörg
2016 English Morphology and Word-Formation: An Introduction, 3rd ed. Berlin: Erich Schmidt.Google Scholar
Schulte, Marion
2015a The Semantics of Derivational Morphology: A Synchronic and Diachronic Investigation of the Suffixes -age and -ery in English. Tübingen: Narr Verlag.Google Scholar
2015b Polysemy and synonymy in derivational affixation: A case study of the English suffixes ‑age and ‑ery. Morphology 25: 371–390. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shimamura, Reiko
1990 Eigo no Gokeisei to Sono Seisansei (Word-Formation in English and its Productivity). Tokyo: Liber Press.Google Scholar
Štekauer, Pavol
1998 An Onomasiological Theory of English Word-Formation. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2005 Onomasiological approach to word-formation. In Handbook of Word-Formation, Pavol Štekauer & Rochelle Lieber (eds), 207–232. Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
2017 Competition in natural languages. In Competing Patterns in English Affixation, Juan Santana-Lario & Salvador Valera (eds), 15–32. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Sugioka, Yoko
2005 Multiple mechanisms underlying morphological productivity. In Polymorphous Linguistics: Jim McCawley’s Legacy, Salikoko S. Mufwene, Elaine J. Francis & Rebecca S. Wheeler, 203–224. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Tribout, Delphine & Villoing, Florence
2014 La composition VN et la conversion V>N en français: un nouveau cas de concurrence morphologique? In Foisonnements Morphologiques: Études en Hommage à Françoise Kerleroux, Florence Villoing, Sophie David & Sarah Leroy (eds), 75–108. Nanterre: Presses universitaires de Paris Ouest.Google Scholar
Trips, Carola
2009 Lexical Semantics and Diachronic Morphology: The Development of -hood, -dom and -ship in the History of English. Tübingen: Niemeyer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ueno, Yoshio
2015 An Automodular View of Ellipsis. Tokyo: Waseda University Press.Google Scholar
Varvara, Rossella
2020 Constraints on nominalizations: Investigating the productivity domain of Italian ‑mento and ‑zione. Zeitschrift für Wortbildung/Journal of Word Formation 4(2): 78–99. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Varvara, Rossella, Lapesa, Gabriella & Padó, Sebastian
2021 Grounding semantic transparency in context: A distributional semantic study of German event nominalizations. Morphology 31(4): 409–446. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Varvara, Rossella & Zamparelli, Roberto
2019 Competition between event-denoting deverbal nouns and nominal infinitives in Italian. In Competition in Inflection and Word-Formation, Franz Rainer, Francesco Gardani, Wolfgang U. Dressler & Hans Christian Luschützky (eds), 169–193. Cham: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Villalva, Alina
2022 Complex verbs: The interplay of suffixation, conversion, and parasynthesis in Portuguese and English. In Paradigms in Word Formation: Theory and Applications, Alba E. Ruz, Cristina Fernández-Alcaina & Cristina Lara-Clares (eds), 249–282. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yang, Charles
2006 The Price of Linguistic Productivity: How Children Learn to Break the Rules of Language. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Zehentner, Eva
2022 Competing constructions construct complementary niches. Language Dynamics and Change 13(1): 34–73. DOI logoGoogle Scholar