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Paradigms in Word Formation: Theory and applications
Edited by Alba E. Ruz, Cristina Fernández-Alcaina and Cristina Lara-Clares
[Studies in Language Companion Series 225] 2022
► pp. 319–340

Chapter 12
English participles in the derivational paradigm

| Goldsmiths, University of London

This chapter surveys the different uses of the English participles and discusses their status with respect to the distinction between derivation and inflection. In the debate about whether participles are verbal or adjectival, or indeed a mix between the two, most scholars have taken the position that ability to undergo further derivation (with affixes like -ness or negative un- for instance) indicates adjectival status. The paper assumes a descriptive focus and, without aiming to take a conclusive position relative to this general debate, explores such derivation further. The patterns covered in the paper are relatively few, but productive. This leads to derivational networks with sparse membership, but generally stable formal and semantic alignment.

Keywords: participle, derivational paradigms, deadjectival derivation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Participles in English: An overview
    • 2.1Participial constructions as modifiers
  • 3.Participles and the inflection-derivation distinction
  • 4.Participial adjectives from complex verbs
  • 5.Participles and affixation with -ly
  • 6.Suffixation with -ness
  • 7.Negative prefixation
  • 8.Participles in the derivational paradigm
  • 9.Summary
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 19 September 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.225.12pop
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Cited by 1 other publications

Fábregas, Antonio
2022. Chapter 11. Structural and lexical aspects of the morphology of English participles. In Paradigms in Word Formation [Studies in Language Companion Series, 225], ► pp. 285 ff. DOI logo

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