Lexical semantics and diachronic morphology: The development of -hood, -dom and -ship in the history of English (Linguistische Arbeiten)

✍ Scribed by Carola Trips

• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 278
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book is the most comprehensive study to date of the development of the three suffixes -hood, -dom and -ship in the history of English. An in depth investigation from Old English to Modern English based on data from annotated corpora reveals that all three suffixes developed from nouns into today's suffixes building abstract nouns. It is shown that the rise of suffixes is triggered by semantic change. The findings are analysed in a current model of lexical semantics of word formation (Lieber 2004). The book includes an index with all formations with the three suffixes from Old English to Modern English.

✦ Table of Contents

Frontmatter
......Page 2
Table of Contents......Page 6
List of Tables......Page 8
List of Abbreviations and Acronyms......Page 11
1. Introduction......Page 12
2. The development of suffixes......Page 17
3. Frequency, productivity and creativity......Page 38
4. The data......Page 50
5. -hood, -dom and -ship as rivals in word formation processes......Page 176
6. A lexical-semantic analysis of word-formations with -hood, -dom and -ship......Page 211
7. Theoretical consequences of morphological change......Page 244
8. Conclusion......Page 256
Bibliography
......Page 258
Appendix
......Page 266
Index of Word-Formation with -hood, -dom, -ship and -red(en)
......Page 268
General Index
......Page 277