The prefix post- in contemporary English terminology

Morphology, meaning, and productivity of derivations

Rostislav Kocourek | Dalhousie University

The article is based on a corpus of English words and technical terms obtained from contemporary texts and major up-to-date dictionaries and encyclopedias. It gives a description of "post- " prefixation, its morphology (including derivational patterns of one-word terms and syntactic patterns of multiword terms) and semantics (including motivational ambiguity and definitions). French terms are used for comparison and contrast. Morphological and semantic properties of term-constituting lexemes are examined within the framework of an analysis of lexical productivity, which is defined by three criteria: number of existing derivatives, rules of derivation, and neological potential. The analysis also shows other aspects of derivational productivity: favourite word-class membership, semantic options, and terminologization.

Keywords: Prefix Post-, Derivation, Productivity, Derivational Patterns, Prefixation, Terminologization, Free Concatenation, Derivational Rules, Neological Potential, Syntactic Patterns, Derivational Groups, Motivation, Ambiguity, Definition, Terminology, Lexical Morphology

Published online: 01 January 1996
https://doi.org/10.1075/term.3.1.05koc

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