An Onomasiological Theory Of English Word Formation

Pavol Štekauer presents an original approach to the intricate problems of English word-formation. The emphasis is on the process of coining new naming units (words). This is described by an onomasiological model, which takes as its point of departure the naming needs of a speech community, and proceeds through conceptual reflection of extra-linguistic reality and semantic analysis to the form of a new naming unit. As a result, it is the form which implements options given by semantics by means of the so-called Form-to-Meaning Assignment Principle. Word-formation is conceived of as an independent component, interrelated with the lexical component by supplying it with new naming units, and by making use of the word-formation bases of naming units stored in the Lexicon. The relation to the Syntactic component is only mediated through the Lexical component. In addition, the book presents a new approach to productivity. It is maintained that word-formation processes are as productive as syntactic processes. This radically new approach provides simple answers to a number of traditional problems of word-formation.

This book presents the onomasiological approach to word formation and applies it to neoclassical formations, using data taken from English and Russian medical terminology. The phenomenon of neoclassical formations is challenging for morphological theory because it raises questions about determining its boundaries as a distinct category. The difficulties of differentiating between compounding and affixation, between blending and compounding, and between word formation and borrowing represent key problematic areas here. The basic underlying hypothesis considered in this book is that the position of neoclassical formations in English and Russian is different. It will be argued that, whereas in English, neoclassical word formation is a system of word formation, Russian has only individual borrowings. This hypothesis and the theoretical problems it entails are viewed from the perspective of Štekauer’s onomasiological theory of word formation. Štekauer’s theory takes the needs of the speech community as its starting point in explaining word formation. In this theory, the different analyses of neoclassical formations in English and Russian can be accounted for in an intuitively appealing and theoretically elegant way. As naming needs are central, word formation and borrowing can be analysed as alternative responses activating different components of the language system.

This is the most comprehensive book to date on word formation in terms of scope of topics, schools and theoretical positions. All contributions were written by the leading scholars in their respective areas.

Fills a gap in cross-linguistic research by being the first systematic survey of the word-formation of the world's languages. Data from fifty-five world languages reveals associations between word-formation processes in genetically and geographically distinct languages.

Presents three frameworks for studying morphology, offering different insights into the meaning of compounds.

Drawing on innovative research, the book reveals the wealth and breadth of the study of word-formation, both theoretically and empirically.

In the study of word formation, the focus has often been on generating the form. In this book, the semantic aspect of the formation of new words is central. It is viewed from the perspectives of word formation rules and of lexicalization. An extensive introduction gives a historical overview of the study of the semantics of word formation and lexicalization, explaining how the different theoretical frameworks used in the contributions relate to each other. Each chapter then concentrates on a specific question about a theoretical concept or a word formation process in a particular language and adopts a theoretical framework that is appropriate to the study of this question. From general theoretical concepts of productivity and lexicalization, the focus moves to terminology, compounding, and derivation. Theoretical frameworks discussed include Jackendoff's Conceptual Structure, Langacker's Cognitive Grammar, Lieber's lexical semantic approach to word formation, Pustejovsky's Generative Lexicon, Beard's Lexeme-Morpheme-Base Morphology, The onomasiological approach to terminology and word formation.