0 INTRODUCTION

5. CORPORA AND METHODOLOGY
participial forms of Latin verbs, mainly from those ending in –ate, –fy and –ize/–ise.
Consider, for example, adulteration, exaggeration, classification, amplification and
centralization (Jespersen 1942 [1909] Vol. VI: 374). This suffix is also found in
formations from native stems, such as, flirtation, starvation, flotation and Westernization
(Jespersen 1942 [1909] Vol. VI: 375).
As regards semantics, being originally added to the “passive participle,” in Latin
the –(at)ion suffix had a primarily passive meaning: ‘state of being –ed.’ In the case of
English, however, nominals derived with –(at)ion are usually nouns of action or process
meaning ‘the action or process of Ving’ (Jespersen 1942 [1909] Vol. VI: 372). Similarly,
Lloyd (2011: 203) claims that –(at)ion possesses a “general action/fact” meaning. She
(2011: 11) also points out that “[i]t seems inevitable that words denoting verbal action may
be used in abstract and generalized senses to refer to the non-specific fact of the action
denoted by the verb base.”
5.2.1.2.2. –ment
This suffix originates from French –ment, which “was added to verbal stems, generally to
denote the instrument, result, or product of an action, later also the action itself” (Jespersen
1942 [1909] Vol. VI: 375), and ultimately derives from Latin –mentum. According to
Jespersen, there were already some Anglo-French loans ending in –ment in the 12 th
century, but this suffix started to be regarded as an English formative only during the latter
part of the 13 th century. It was only in the 16 th century that nominals both from French and
from native roots became abundant. Consider, for instance, acknowledgment, amazement,
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