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Chapter 10. English word clipping in a diachronic perspective

  • Donka Minkova
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Sociocultural Dimensions of Lexis and Text in the History of English
This chapter is in the book Sociocultural Dimensions of Lexis and Text in the History of English

Abstract

Shortening processes are increasingly productive in Present-day English (PDE), generating 9–15% of the new words in the language. They are therefore a valuable source of information on the interaction of production, perception, prosodic well-formedness, morphological patterning, and sociolinguistic and pragmatic aspects of word-formation. One type of shortening, word clipping, is considered unpredictable by some scholars (Durkin 2009: 116; Don 2014: 27), while others (Plag 2003; Lappe 2007; Berg 2011) find non-random patterns in the outcome of clippings in PDE. The diachronic records of clipping have not been addressed systematically in the literature. Data collected from the online OED show that clipping in early English is restricted to fore-clipping, which peaked between 1300–1600 and then decreased quite sharply. Back-clipping was practically unattested until the end of Middle English, whereupon it rapidly became the dominant model, making fore-clipping a marginal pattern for common words. The association between prefixation and lack of stress during the period of widespread fore-clipping, and the stability of the left edge of the word in back-clippings after the 15th century require reference to both the surplus location and composition, and the residue structure. An account in terms of onset, stress, Morphological identity, and align-l shows how the relative importance of these constraints changes in tandem with independently established changes in the history of English.

Abstract

Shortening processes are increasingly productive in Present-day English (PDE), generating 9–15% of the new words in the language. They are therefore a valuable source of information on the interaction of production, perception, prosodic well-formedness, morphological patterning, and sociolinguistic and pragmatic aspects of word-formation. One type of shortening, word clipping, is considered unpredictable by some scholars (Durkin 2009: 116; Don 2014: 27), while others (Plag 2003; Lappe 2007; Berg 2011) find non-random patterns in the outcome of clippings in PDE. The diachronic records of clipping have not been addressed systematically in the literature. Data collected from the online OED show that clipping in early English is restricted to fore-clipping, which peaked between 1300–1600 and then decreased quite sharply. Back-clipping was practically unattested until the end of Middle English, whereupon it rapidly became the dominant model, making fore-clipping a marginal pattern for common words. The association between prefixation and lack of stress during the period of widespread fore-clipping, and the stability of the left edge of the word in back-clippings after the 15th century require reference to both the surplus location and composition, and the residue structure. An account in terms of onset, stress, Morphological identity, and align-l shows how the relative importance of these constraints changes in tandem with independently established changes in the history of English.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part 1. Conspicuous lexical choice in past societies
  6. Chapter 1. Old English ead in Anglo-Saxon given names 15
  7. Chapter 2. News and relations 41
  8. Chapter 3. “… all spirits, and are melted into air, into thin air” 61
  9. Part 2. Historical layers in text and genre
  10. Chapter 4. Conservatism and innovation in Anglo-Saxon scribal practice 79
  11. Chapter 5. Old English wills 103
  12. Chapter 6. Spatio-temporal systems in Chaucer 125
  13. Chapter 7. “A riddle to myself I am” 151
  14. Part 3. Lexis, morphology, and a changing society
  15. Chapter 8. Common to the North of England and to New England 183
  16. Chapter 9. Betwixt, amongst , and amidst 201
  17. Chapter 10. English word clipping in a diachronic perspective 227
  18. Index 253
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.343.10min

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part 1. Conspicuous lexical choice in past societies
  6. Chapter 1. Old English ead in Anglo-Saxon given names 15
  7. Chapter 2. News and relations 41
  8. Chapter 3. “… all spirits, and are melted into air, into thin air” 61
  9. Part 2. Historical layers in text and genre
  10. Chapter 4. Conservatism and innovation in Anglo-Saxon scribal practice 79
  11. Chapter 5. Old English wills 103
  12. Chapter 6. Spatio-temporal systems in Chaucer 125
  13. Chapter 7. “A riddle to myself I am” 151
  14. Part 3. Lexis, morphology, and a changing society
  15. Chapter 8. Common to the North of England and to New England 183
  16. Chapter 9. Betwixt, amongst , and amidst 201
  17. Chapter 10. English word clipping in a diachronic perspective 227
  18. Index 253
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