morphological? - KOPS - Universität Konstanz

F. Plank (frans.plank@uni-konstanz.de), The Direction of Derivation 1 Nov 07
How is basicness/derivedness established?
• SEMANTIC-CONCEPTUAL COMPLEXITY
• FORMAL COMPLEXITY
e.g., German Studi is more complex than Student insofar as
(i) it has more segmental substance, contributed by suffix -i;
(ii) it has undergone a segmental reduction to a maximal syllable.
e.g., Engl V house /haÁz/ is more complex than N house /haÁs/
insofar as it has undergone voicing of its final fricative;
e.g., Engl N bin and V bin are formally equally complex (zero-derivation,
conversion).
• FORMAL (IR-)REGULARITY: derived = regular, general (default)
e.g., V buy, bought – N buy, buy-s [z];
V intrans sitzen, saß strong – V trans setzen, setz-t- weak;
Hund M, Hand F, Band N – dimin Hündchen, Händchen, Bändchen all N
• OCCURRENCE LIMITATIONS IN CONSTRUCTIONS OWING TO SEMANTIC
SPECIFICITY
e.g., in English the V bin is derived from the N bin, whereas the N dump
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