Heterogeneity in Word-Formation Patterns
A corpus-based analysis of suffixation with -ee and its productivity in English
Author
Postulated word-formation rules often exclude formations that can nevertheless be found in actual usage. This book presents an in-depth investigation of a highly heterogeneous word-formation pattern in English: the formation of nouns by suffixation with -ee. Rather than relying on a single semantic or syntactic framework for analysis, the study combines diachronic, cognitive and language-contact perspectives in order to explain the diversity in the formation and establishment of -ee words. It also seeks to challenge previous measurements of productivity and proposes a new way to investigate the relationship between actual and possible words. By making use of the largest and most up-to-date electronic corpus – the World Wide Web – as a data source, this research adds substantially to the number of attested -ee words. It furthermore analyses this word-formation pattern in different varieties of English (British vs. American English; Australian English). Due to the multiplicity of approaches and analyses it offers, the study is suitable for courses in English word-formation, lexicology, corpus linguistics and historical linguistics.
[Studies in Language Companion Series, 118] 2010. xiii, 245 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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Acknowledgments | p. ix
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List of tables and figures | pp. xi–xii
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List of abbreviations | p. xiii
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Chapter 1. Introduction: Polysemy, heterogeneity and ambiguity in word-formation patterns | pp. 1–18
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Chapter 2. Phonological, syntactic and semantic constraints on the formation of -ee words | pp. 19–60
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Chapter 3. The career of -ee words: A diachronic analysis from medieval legal use to nineteenth-century ironic nonce words | pp. 61–90
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Chapter 4. Morphology and the lexicon: On creativity and productivity of -ee words | pp. 91–119
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Chapter 5. A corpus-based analysis of 1,000 potential new -ee words | pp. 121–164
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Chapter 6. -ee words in varieties of English | pp. 165–187
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Conclusion. On the study of an individual word-formation pattern: General and particular implications | pp. 189–192
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Works cited | pp. 193–199
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Appendix 1. Documentation of established -ee words with their citation sources: A comparison (in alphabetical order) | pp. 201–213
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Appendix 2. Quantitative analysis of 1,000 potential -ee words (Web-search, February–June 2005) | pp. 215–239
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Name index | pp. 241–242
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Subject index | pp. 243–245
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Subjects & Metadata
Linguistics
BIC Subject: CFK – Grammar, syntax
BISAC Subject: LAN009000 – LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General