Semantic Change in Word Formation

Linguistics ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Franz Rainer
Author(s):  
Franz Rainer

All languages seem to have nouns and verbs, while the dimension of the class of adjectives varies considerably cross-linguistically. In some languages, verbs or, to a lesser extent, nouns take over the functions that adjectives fulfill in Indo-European languages. Like other such languages, Latin and the Romance languages have a rich category of adjectives, with a well-developed inventory of patterns of word formation that can be used to enrich it. There are about 100 patterns in Romance standard languages. The semantic categories expressed by adjectival derivation in Latin have remained remarkably stable in Romance, despite important changes at the level of single patterns. To some extent, this stability is certainly due to the profound process of relatinization that especially the Romance standard languages have undergone over the last 1,000 years; however, we may assume that it also reflects the cognitive importance of the semantic categories involved. Losses were mainly due to phonological attrition (Latin unstressed suffixes were generally doomed) and to the fact that many derived adjectives became nouns via ellipsis, thereby often reducing the stock of adjectives. At the same time, new adjectival patterns arose as a consequence of language contact and through semantic change, processes of noun–adjective conversion, and the transformation of evaluative suffixes into ethnic suffixes. Overall, the inventory of adjectival patterns of word formation is richer in present-day Romance languages than it was in Latin.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-76
Author(s):  
Linna Meilia Rasiban ◽  
Amalia Rahmayanti ◽  
Renariah Renariah ◽  
Dedi Sutedi

The purpose of this study is to examine the phenomenon of Japanese loanwords (gairaigo) used in culinary content on Instagram, and to describe the analytical framework of those meaning and formation. This study used descriptive qualitative method with data sources from 8 Instagram accounts of culinary content. This data in this study including 74 postings and 115 data of loanwords use from the Instagram accounts. The results from this study showed that lexical and word-formation structure that form the Japanese loanwords mostly were the compound word form (fukugougo) because many cuisine terms used two or more words. The results also showed that many of Japanese loanwords in culinary content are using derivative forms and acronyms. It is suggested that teachers and Japanese learners should be aware of these structure changes and semantic change in Japanese loanwords, which can help Japanese learners to understand the meaning of loanwords in Japanese.


Author(s):  
O. Ye. Tkachuk-Miroshnychenko

The article presents a first assessment of the word-stock of “coronaspeak”-2020 — a new language of the Covid-19 pandemic. The English vocabulary is subjected to constant change due to various extralinguistic factors. The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the ‘explosion’ of new words. As of today, “coronaspeak” has over 1,000 words with more units appearing each day. The scale of the expansion is unprecedented, which requires reaction of the linguistic community. The article raises the issue of the classification of the “coronaspeak” word-stock. It argues that facilitated by media and social networks new words are changing their status of nonce words to neologisms, which makes the classification untimely and premature. The word-building analysis of 200 new words of “coronaspeak” allows to conclude that the creation of the new “coronavirus” word-stock applies the structural patterns specific for the English language. These various patterns include semantic change in denotation, derivation, compounding, blending, shortening, The analysis of the “coranaspeak” word-stock has demonstrated that the semantic changes in denotation, in particular the extension and the narrowing of a meaning, are scarce, and, hence, non-productive. Affixation, as a word-forming process, has proved semi-productive with the predominantly noun-forming suffixes. Among a limited number of shortenings we have observed final (apocope) and initial (apheresis) clippings, combined with affixation, by adding the suffix — y. Compounding and blending have proved to be highly productive. According to the part of speech classification, most “coronaspeak” compounds and blends are nouns. Of special interest are a group of “coronapuns”, which have demonstrated pragmatic potential.


2018 ◽  
Vol 165 ◽  
pp. 461-469
Author(s):  
Andreja Žele ◽  
Boris Kern

Changes in lexicon and syntax in modern SlovenianBecause of the multifunctional expansion of texts and lexis are the borrow semantic-syntactic features of today’s lexems already a part of system of Slovenian language. Lexical changes, i.e. the properties and the capacity of word-formation/semantic change of modern lexemes, are analysed particularly from the perspective of a high degree of borrowing. In connection with a high de­gree ofborrowed word-formational propositions of neologisms one can note an increase in certain types of suffixes, largely observed in compounds; in connection with borrowed elements systemic unpredictability of formation is highlighted.From the standpoint of syntactic/valence changes the most frequent change is from monovalent verbs to divalent verbs, e.g. abstinirati glasovanje ‘to abstain voting’, blefirati veselje ‘to fake enjoyment’, diplomirati/magistrirati/doktorirati zgodovino ‘to BA/MD/PhD history’.In an increasingly more popular use of agglutinative words certain Slovene prefixes may only preserve their phase quality, e.g. zaasfaltirati, zamoralizirati, zmasakrirati, while others may indi­rectly express social changes, e.g. the prefix ‘pre-’ as in predefinirati ukaze ‘to predefine orders’. Greater individualisation is seen in the use of the pronominal prefix ‘sam-’ in increasingly more extended compounds such as samoaktualizirati potrebe ‘to selfmodernise the needs’ etc.Zmiany leksykalne i składniowe we współczesnym języku słoweńskimW wyniku rozszerzenia wielofunkcyjności tekstowej i leksykalnej oraz wysokiego stopnia za­pożyczeń w ramach właściwości znaczeniowo-składniowych dochodzi do zmian w systemie języka słoweńskiego. Zmiany leksykalne, tak zwane właściwości słowotwórczo-znaczeniowe, i potencjał słowotwórczy nowego słownictwa są analizowane przede wszystkim w kontekście wysokiego sto­pnia zapożyczania. W związku z tym, że podstawy nowych derywatów są w dużej mierze zapoży­czane, można zauważyć znaczący wzrost użycia tylko niektórych prefiksów. Szczególnie częste są złożenia. Charakterystyczna jest jednocześnie nieprzewidywalność derywacji.W przypadku innowacji składniowych i walencyjnych najczęstsza jest zmiana czasowników jednowalencyjnych na dwuwalencyjne, na przykład abstinirati glasovanje ‘powstrzymywać się od głosowania’, blefirati veselje ‘udawać radość’, diplomirati/magistrirati/doktorirati zgodovino ‘ukończyć studia licencjackie/magister-skie/doktoranckie z historii’.W związku z coraz częstszym użyciem derywatów prefiksalnych niektóre słoweńskie przedro­stki mogą wyrażać tylko fazowość, na przykład zaasfaltirati, zamoralizirati, zmasakrirati, podczas gdy inne pośrednio wskazują na zmiany społeczne, dla przykładu pre-: predefinirati ukaze ‘prze­definiować rozporządzenie’. Na większą indywidualizację wskazuje przyimkowy formant sam- w coraz bardziej powszechnych zrostach samoaktualizirati potrebe ‘samoaktualizować potrzeby’.


Slovene ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-208
Author(s):  
Ildikó Pálosi

The article summarizes the basic questions of aktionsart (the status, content, and borders of the category) in the Russian language and describes the most relevant views on the problem. In the author’s opinion, the category of aktionsart is a semantic-word formation category, one that includes motivated verbs with formal markers of semantic change of the base verb, except for verbs of motion. Taking into consideration that word formation models are polysemic, the verb classes of aktionsart can be specified not by formal factors but by semantic ones. Consequently, the content of the category of aktionsart is determined by word formation and semantics together. Another key problem is the connection between the category of aktionsart and category of grammatical aspect and the sphere of word formation. The author joins the opinion of those linguists who consider aktionsart to be the lexical level of the macrocategory of aspect. The category of aktionsart is separated from the sphere of word formation by the regularity of verb formation. Regarding this criteria, as the author suggests, some verb formation models of low regularity should not be acknowledged as verb classes of aktionsart.


2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Urban

This article is a contribution to the long standing issue of identifying directionality in semantic change. Drawing on evidence from a sample of morphologically complex terms in basic vocabulary for 149 globally distributed languages, it is argued that cross-linguistically preferred synchronic relationships of word-formation provide clues to likely directions of diachronic semantic developments. The hypothesis is tested against diachronic data from Indo-Aryan languages, and, in spite of a number of counterexamples, a correlation is found. In addition, it is shown how these data can be applied to semantic reconstruction, and a scenario of semantic change which involves morphological complexity in an early stage of semantic development is sketched.


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