Syntactic Productivity

Type vs. token frequency (Bybee 1995)
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• High type frequency contributes to productivity
• High token frequency detracts from productivity
– Strong verbs are high in type frequency
– Irregular verbs are high in token frequency
• Two classes of irregular verbs, the strung vs. the
swept class, of same type frequency (13 vs.14)
show differences in productivity correlating with
token frequency. The swept class is of high token
frequency and non-productive, while the strung
class is of intermediate token frequency and semiproductive
Bergen Jóhanna Barðdal June 5, 2008