The bases of derivation of Old English affixed nouns: Status and category
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Date
2010
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Adam Mickiewicz University
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Abstract
The aim of this journal article is to carry out a complete analysis of the category, status and patterns
of the bases of derivation of Old English affixal nouns. The results of the analysis are discussed
in the light of the evolution from stem-formation to word-formation. The corpus of analysis
of this research is based on data retrieved from the lexical database of Old English Nerthus,
which contains 30170 predicates. 16694 out of these are nouns, of which 4115 are basic and
12579 qualify as non-basic. Within non-basic nouns there are 3488 affixed nouns (351 by prefixation
and 3137 by suffixation) and 9091 compound nouns. The line of argumentation is that, under
certain circumstances, the existence of more than one base available for the formation of a derivative
does not reinforce the explanation of invariable bases; on the contrary, it goes in the direction
of variable bases produced by inflectional processes and made ready for derivation. The following
conclusions are reached. In the first place, the importance is underlined of formations on stems in
Old English, involving, at least, nouns. Secondly, the analysis evidences that the importance of
stem-formation in Old English might be higher than has been acknowledged by previous studies.
If Old English made extensive use of words as bases of derivation, a single base should be available;
if, on the contrary, Old English is still dependent on stem-formation, more than one base is
likely to be found for a single derivative. Such alternative bases of derivation reflect stemformation
that may result from inflectional means and be eventually used for derivational purposes.
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This research has been funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain through
the project FFI2008-04448/FILO.
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Citation
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, vol. 46.2 (2010), pp. 21-43
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0081-6272