Morphological variation in the construction of French names for inhabitants
-
Elmar Eggert
Abstract
The French names for inhabitants like Paris --> Parisien ‘Parisian’ or Toulouse --> Toulousain, are mainly formed by derivation and exhibit high variability due to the wide range of suffixes used for detoponymic adjectives and their various bases. The derivational stem is formed by morphological processes like epenthesis, allomorphy, or suppletion, and the selection of a suffix is related to the formal shape of the stem. It is impossible to predict the selection of any particular suffix, but one can nevertheless restrict the selection to some of them to the exclusion of others. When forming French ethnonyms, speakers first construct a possible derivational stem and in a second step select a probable suffix in order to derive ethnonyms with a harmonic structure. The concrete construction principles are discussed in the second part of this paper.
Abstract
The French names for inhabitants like Paris --> Parisien ‘Parisian’ or Toulouse --> Toulousain, are mainly formed by derivation and exhibit high variability due to the wide range of suffixes used for detoponymic adjectives and their various bases. The derivational stem is formed by morphological processes like epenthesis, allomorphy, or suppletion, and the selection of a suffix is related to the formal shape of the stem. It is impossible to predict the selection of any particular suffix, but one can nevertheless restrict the selection to some of them to the exclusion of others. When forming French ethnonyms, speakers first construct a possible derivational stem and in a second step select a probable suffix in order to derive ethnonyms with a harmonic structure. The concrete construction principles are discussed in the second part of this paper.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword and acknowledgements vii
- Editors’ introduction 1
- Affixation vs. conversion. 15
- The -alis/-aris allomorphy revisited 33
- French property nouns based on toponyms or ethnic adjectives 53
- Morphological variation in the construction of French names for inhabitants 75
- The invisible hand of grammaticalization 89
- Paradigmatic realignment and morphological change 107
- Areal-typological aspects of word-formation 129
- Variation and change in morphology and syntax 149
- Optional multiple plural marking in Maay 177
- Lettered words 193
- Word creation 201
- Pleonastic morphology dies hard 217
- Index of languages and terms 245
- Index of subjects and terms 247
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword and acknowledgements vii
- Editors’ introduction 1
- Affixation vs. conversion. 15
- The -alis/-aris allomorphy revisited 33
- French property nouns based on toponyms or ethnic adjectives 53
- Morphological variation in the construction of French names for inhabitants 75
- The invisible hand of grammaticalization 89
- Paradigmatic realignment and morphological change 107
- Areal-typological aspects of word-formation 129
- Variation and change in morphology and syntax 149
- Optional multiple plural marking in Maay 177
- Lettered words 193
- Word creation 201
- Pleonastic morphology dies hard 217
- Index of languages and terms 245
- Index of subjects and terms 247
