Categories Of Word Formation And Borrowing

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.

Drawing on detailed case studies across a range of languages, including English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Czech, Russian, Lithuanian and Greek, this book examines the different factors that determine the outcome of the interaction between borrowing and word formation. Historically, borrowing has largely been studied from etymological and lexicographical perspectives and word formation has been included in morphology. However, this book focuses on their mutual influence and interaction. Bringing together a range of contributors, each chapter illustrates how borrowing and word formation are in competition as alternative naming processes, while also showing how they can influence each other. The case studies are framed by an introduction that describes the general background and a conclusion that summarises the main findings.

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.

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Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,3, Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, language: English, abstract: People have always been interested in language. First records of Sanskrit grammar, morphology and word-formation rules were written down by Panini over 2500 years ago. So it is not surprising that especially now with all the possibilities technology offers, linguists are determined to identify THE word-formation-theory. In the last century there has been a boom in publishing, creating enormous corpora that allow linguists to study a far wider range of written language. Due to the technological possibility of sound and video recording, there are also numerous spoken accounts of language available now (Bauer 1994, 9). In the last decades however, according to Bauer, word-formation is a rather “confused area of study“(2002, xiii), mostly because of its various terminology as well as different methodological and theoretical approaches. Therefore this paper will concentrate on and use the standard terminology Bauer agreed on in English Word-formation. Bauer notes furthermore the confusion in the field of productivity in word-formation. The fact that word-formation processes are in fact productive and create new lexemes can be proved by consulting any dictionary of neologisms or updates in other dictionaries. Nevertheless, linguists dispute over the extent to which word-formation is productive generally. Here the dispute between transformationalist and lexicalist positions to productivity should be mentioned (2002, 62 f., 75). But since this paper will focus on specific neologisms added to the Oxford English Dictionary, the decision of what is listed as a new and independent lexicon entry was made by someone else and should not be of any concern here. This paper will deal with the subject of words, especially newly formed words. What exactly are neologisms and how do they come about? What word-formation processes are involved in the creation of new words? How productive are the different types of word-formation? This paper attempts to answer these questions to a certain extent and furthermore picture the contemporary productivity of word-formation patterns by analysing the new word entries of the March 2013 update in the Oxford English Dictionary as a case study.

Research into cross-linguistic aspects and typology of word-formation has not been paid relevant and systematic attention by morphologists, and only a few articles dealing with various word-formation issues of this kind appear in journals. The chapters in this volume address this issue by discussing, on contrastive principles, important questions of word-formation in a sample of 26 languages. The focus of the book, as a whole, is on typological features of word-formation in the languages sampled. It is aimed at researchers that have an interest in word-formation in a variety of languages.

A number of previous approaches to linguistic borrowing and contact phenomena in general have concluded that there are no formal boundaries whatsoever to the kinds of material that can pass from one language into another. At the same time, various hierarchies illustrate that some things are indeed more likely to be borrowed than others. Linguistic Borrowing in Bilingual Contexts addresses both, by examining claims of no absolute limits and synthesizing various hierarchies. It observes that all contact phenomena are systematic, and borrowing is no exception. Regarding forms, the determining factors lie in the nature of the morphological systems in contact and how they relate to one another. Two principles are proposed to determine the nature of the systematicity and interaction: the Principle of System Compatibility (PSC), and its corollary, the Principle of System Incompatibility (PSI). Together, these principles provide a consistent account of the possibilities and limits to borrowing.