Metapragmatic neology in digital discourse

This note addresses the topic of Judith Bridges’s focus article, namely ‑splain neologisms such as mansplain, thinsplain and covidsplain, from the perspective of morphological theory. I attempt to show that Morphopragmatics, a subfield of morphology, can account for the complex pragmatics of word formation processes like those in ‑splain neology. I propose that the analysis of ‑splain words as constructional idioms, under the framework of Construction Morphology, provides a suitable account of the pragmatic effects associated with the innovations in this lexical pattern.

Compounding in Old Italian

This paper provides a corpus-based analysis of compounding in Old Italian. The semantic and formal properties of compound words attested in Old Italian are described and discussed through the theoretical tools provided by Construction Morphology. The analysis confirms that compounding is exploited since the earliest attestations of the language. It reveals that Old Italian compounds are mostly right-headed endocentric or exocentric: particularly, endocentric [ADV-Y]Y, [A-N]N|A and exocentric [V-N]N are the most productive schemas. Moreover, this study highlights a significant influence of Latin on Italian compounding, whereby many Old Italian compounds are Latin loanwords and calques which served as a model for the creation of new native compounds.

Advances in Morphological Theory: Construction Morphology and Relational Morphology

In recent years, construction-based approaches to morphology have gained ground in the research community. This framework is characterized by the assumption that the mental lexicon is extensive and richly structured, containing not only a large number of stored words but also a wide variety of generalizations in the form of schemas. This review explores two construction-based theories, Construction Morphology and Relational Morphology. After outlining the basic theoretical architecture, the article presents an array of recent applications of a construction-based approach to morphological phenomena in various languages. In addition, it offers reflections on challenges and opportunities for further research. The review highlights those aspects of the theory that have proved particularly helpful in accommodating both the regularities and the quirks that are typical of the grammar of words. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 8 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Construction schemas in Yoruba compounding: focus on personal names

Compounding is a common word-formation process in Yoruba which is instantiated by different compound structures and types. However, in Yoruba personal names, compounds may exhibit significant formal and semantic properties that reflect certain constructional schemas in grammar. Hence, using the framework of construction morphology, this paper examines various schemas in Yoruba compound personal names and the internal features of these schemas. Based on data collected from personal interviews and native speaker intuition, I show that Yoruba personal names are constructions involving complex structural schemas which constitute a form-meaning pair where there are internal features that are not only semantic but syntactic and phonological. Furthermore, the paper reveals that several compound patterns may occur in Yoruba names including N-N, N-V, V-N, N-A and N-Av and that phonological processes in these schemas may be unique to the name constructions.

Transformed Shell Structures Determined by Regular Networks as a Complex Material for Roofing

The article presents a comprehensive extension of the proprietary basic method for shaping innovative systems of corrugated shell roof structures by means of a specific complex material that comprises regular transformable shell units limited by spatial quadrangles. The units are made up of nominally plane folded sheets transformed into shell shapes. The similar shell units are regularly and effectively arranged in the three-dimensional space in an orderly manner with a universal regular reference surface, polyhedral network, and polygonal network. The extended method leads to the increase in the variety of the designed complex shell roof forms and plane-walled elevation forms of buildings. For this purpose, the rules governing the creation of the continuous roof shell structures of many shells arranged in different unconventional visually attractive patterns and their discontinuous regular modifications are sought. To obtain several novel groups of similar unconventional parametric roof forms, single division coefficients and double division coefficients are used. The easy and intuitive modifications of the positions of the vertices belonging to the polygonal network on the side edges of the polyhedral network accomplished by means of a parametric algorithm allow one to adjust the geometry of the complete shell units to the geometric and material constraints related to the orthotropic properties of the transformed sheeting by means of these coefficients. The innovative approach to the shaping of the diverse unconventional roof structures requires the solving of many interdisciplinary problems in the field of mathematics, civil engineering, construction, morphology, architecture, mechanics, computer visualization, and programming.

Reduplication and repetition from a constructionist perspective

In the typological literature, a distinction is often drawn between reduplication (as a morphological process) and repetition (as a syntactic process) (Gil 2005). This squib reconsiders this distinction from the perspective of Construction Morphology (Booij 2010, 2018; Masini and Audring 2019). Drawing upon previously understudied phenomena in Tagalog, an Austronesian language of the Philippines, this paper demonstrates that the Construction Morphology approach provides a suitable framework for analyzing reduplication and repetition. It makes it possible to account for both similarities and differences between reduplication and repetition: both processes create a lexical unit with an iterative form and a conventionalized meaning, although they differ in the size and complexity of the lexical unit they create. Furthermore, this paper makes a strong case for the basic tenets of constructionist approaches, including a hierarchical lexicon and a lexicon-grammar continuum.

Passe-partout-Komposita im gesprochenen Deutsch

This paper proposes an analysis of German passe-partout compounds like Straßending (street thing) and Bananendinger (banana things) as morphological constructions. The study shows that these constructions are characteristic of spoken language and must therefore be considered with respect to the particular properties of that genre. Based on the findings about the pragmatically driven word formation an argument is made for a Construction Morphology that is based on usage and speaker interaction. This proposal can be seen as an extension of the current theory of Construction Morphology (Booij 2010). The notion of pragmatically driven word formation is illustrated by a case study of the [X-Ding]N construction in spoken German. It will be shown that partially filled constructions with Ding as a determinatum have specific semantic and functional-pragmatic properties and are part of a complex family of passe-partout constructions.

A Corpus Study of the English Suffixes -ness and -acy: Productivity, Genre, and Implications for L2 Learning

Despite substantial scholarship relating to word structure (Anderson, 2018), for English affixes the relationship between productivity, genre, and second language (L2) learning remains unclear. Analysis of the existing literature reveals that deadjectival noun suffixes (i.e., nouns derived from adjectives such as appropriacy or goodness) have been underexamined. To address this gap, we examine two rival suffixes, -acy and -ness, through the lens of Construction Morphology (Booij, 2010), considering numerous factors which might condition their varying usage. Critically, corpus data in the Corpus of Contemporary American English and the British National Corpus (Davies, 2008-) reveal the importance of considering these affixes’ productivity in relation to genre, since -acy is especially frequent in academic texts, principally within certain social sciences. The implications for learners and teachers of English as a second language are discussed, particularly higher-level learners building communicative competence in academic contexts, along with a preliminary learner corpus comparison of the two variants.