Zero-derivation – Functional Change – Metonymy

2015

Abstract—Zero derivation is a word formation process when the lexemes before and after the process, most often, when talking about clear or genuine types of zero-derivation, share the same form, display similar, expanded meaning, but belong to different lexical categories or subcategories- a characteristic conditioned by adding a zero affix to the first lexeme. Of the several types of zero derivation and the directions of this process that can be distinguished, for this paper the change from adjective to verb lexical category has been chosen to be analysed, by using the cognitive approach. The source, adjectival lexeme is zero derived in the target, verbal element and, when compared and contrasted, both lexemes are formally identical, in analytic languages, like English, but with inflectional modifications in synthetic languages, like Macedonian, displaying a lexical category change and semantic expansion. The aim of the paper is to show that cognition indeed helps in understanding ...

Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft

In this paper we offer an overview of the linguistic phenomena that have traditionally been handled by means of zero affixes and of the theoretical debate around the advantages and disadvantages of employing such null morphemes in theoretical modeling. While the advantage of positing zero affixes is straightforward from an empirical perspective (see inflectional syncretism and affixless category change, among others), their theoretical legitimacy has been controversially debated for several decades. In this overview, we present the main problems that have been brought forward against zero affixation and some of the mechanisms that have been proposed as an alternative. Finally, we show how the different articles in our edited collection contribute to this debate by addressing the following three research questions: (1) How do current theories of derivational morphology deal with linguistic phenomena that seem to involve zero affixes? (2) How do zero derivational affixes compare with ...

Talk SLE 2019, 2019

This paper is concerned with the morphosyntax of deverbal zero-derived nominals (ZNs, e.g., to walk > a walk-Ø), which have received much less attention in the literature than the suffix-based nominals (SNs, cf. walking, examination, assignment). In the generative literature, in particular, after Grimshaw's (1990) seminal work on SNs and their possibility to inherit verbal event structure realizing arguments, ZNs have been taken to lack all these properties: e.g., in syntax-based models of word formation, which take argument realization in deverbal nouns to indicate the inheritance of verbal functional structure from the base verb, ZNs have been analyzed as derived not from a verb but from an uncategorized root, as implemented in Borer (2013). The prediction of such accounts is that the interpretation of ZNs should be faithful to the ontology of the root and independent of verbal functional structure. Following Rappaport Hovav & Levin's (1998ff) ontology of verbal roots as expressing either manner (of events) or results, I show that some ZNs derived from result verbs denote events, which can only come about from the event structure of their base verbs. In support of this, such ZNs also realize argument structure, as plenty of corpus examples from the BYU corpora show. A further implication of this study is that zero deserves a derivational status similar to that of overt suffixes (contra Borer 2013).

Nordlyd

This paper is concerned with the morphosyntax of deverbal zero-derived nominals (e.g., to climb > a climb), which have received much less attention in the literature than suffix-based nominals (cf. the climb-ing, the examin-ation, the assign-ment). In the generative literature, in particular, after Grimshaw’s (1990) seminal work on suffix-based nominals and their possibility to inherit verbal event and argument structure, zero-derived nouns have been claimed to lack such properties: e.g., in syntax-based models of word formation, which take argument realization in deverbal nouns to indicate the inheritance of functional structure from the base verb, they have been analyzed as derived not from a verb but from an uncategorized root, as implemented in Borer (2013). Following Rappaport-Hovav and Levin’s (1998) theory of event structure and argument realization, I investigate zero-derived nouns built from verbs with preposed and postposed particles and show that they may realize argum...

Studies in Language Companion Series, 2008

... until the end of 2005) of the work on a project, realized in the Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences, by a group of linguists (Maria Bulakh, Dmitriy Ganenkov, Ilya Gruntov, Elena Gruntova and Timur Maysak) under my supervision. Page 232. 218 Anna A. Zalizniak ...

Atlantis. Journal of the Spanish Association for Anglo-American Studies, 2019

This article offers an overview of zero derivation in Old English, a description of the vocalic alternations that hold between zero derived nouns, adjectives and weak verbs and their bases of derivation as well as an account of the significance of alternations in the wider context of the evolution of the lexicon of English. Alternations are quantified and related to i-mutation and word-formation processes by distinguishing direct from reverse alternations and alternations with a strong verb source from alternations with a weak verb target. The conclusions reflect the synchronic-diachronic character of alternations. On the synchronic axis, alternations represent a relatively generalised phenomenon that affects all classes of both strong and weak verbs, while, on the diachronic axis, they allow us to assess the progress of the change from variable to invariable base morphology.

2014

This article argues that the rise of new derivational affixes can be analyzed adequately as a case of “constructionalization” within the framework of Construction Morphology as developed by Booij (2010). It reviews some aspects and problems of previous accounts that view the emergence of derivational affixes as a case of grammaticalization or as a case of lexicalization, respectively. In line with recent developments in grammaticalization research, not the isolated element (word or affix) is viewed as the locus of change, but the complex word as a whole – seen as a “construction” in the sense of Construction Grammar – and its relation with other constructions. Morphological change can be conceived as constructional change at the word level.

Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft

Our paper investigates how zero-affixed verbal forms (specifically, denominal and deadjectival verbs) are processed by native speakers of Italian during visual word recognition. More specifically, we verify whether, and possibly to what extent, the processing of such forms differs from or resembles the processing of verbs resulting from two other productive word formation schemas in Italian, i. e., suffixation and parasynthesis. The interest of such a comparison lies in the fact that the three considered schemas behave similarly from a functional point of view, i. e.: i) they all change the category of the base, ii) they select the same base category (nouns and adjectives), and iii) they show similar semantic characteristics. However, this shared function is realized by means of different formal exponents (both overt and covert) which might imply different degrees of complexity. Crucially, suffixation and parasynthesis display an overt derivational marking, while zero-affixation obv...

Argument Structure (AS) of a word is the list of its arguments. For example, in English, the verb ‘came’ has one obligatory argument in its AS: ‘John came’. While the verb ‘gave’ has three arguments: ‘John gave the book to his brother’. Derivation usually changes the AS of a word, so the AS of a derived word is different from that of the stem. This paper tries to study the AS of Persian verbal derivations and the effect of affixation on the AS of the base. Lieber’s view (1992) forms the theoretical framework of this paper. According to this view, AS of a word is a projection of its Lexical Conceptual Structure (LCS). Using this framework, this study will demonstrate that only affixes which change the LCS of the base can affect its AS. In other words, affixes which exert no change to LCS of a base have no effect on AS.