On the interplay of facts and theory
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Rochelle Lieber
Abstract
This paper examines the data on which theoretical treatments of synthetic compounding in English have typically been based against data culled from the Corpus of Contemporary American English and argues that many claims made in the literature are inaccurate. Claims about the unacceptability of external arguments as the first elements of synthetic compounds, the obligatory transitive interpretation of compounds like tomato growing, the absence of achievement verbs in -ing synthetic compounds, the inability of -ing synthetics to be pluralized, the absence of eventive readings in synthetics, among others are falsified. The paper then proposes a set of generalizations more consistent with the corpus data and shows that the lexical semantic framework of Lieber (2004) is capable of accounting for the facts.
Abstract
This paper examines the data on which theoretical treatments of synthetic compounding in English have typically been based against data culled from the Corpus of Contemporary American English and argues that many claims made in the literature are inaccurate. Claims about the unacceptability of external arguments as the first elements of synthetic compounds, the obligatory transitive interpretation of compounds like tomato growing, the absence of achievement verbs in -ing synthetic compounds, the inability of -ing synthetics to be pluralized, the absence of eventive readings in synthetics, among others are falsified. The paper then proposes a set of generalizations more consistent with the corpus data and shows that the lexical semantic framework of Lieber (2004) is capable of accounting for the facts.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- About the Authors ix
- How are words related? 1
- Paradigms at the interface of a lexeme’s syntax and semantics with its inflectional morphology 27
- A postsyntactic morphome cookbook 59
-
Discussion 1
- Syncretism in paradigm function morphology and distributed morphology 95
- Phase domains at PF 121
- The costs of zero-derived causativity in English 163
- Spans and words 201
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Discussion 2
- Building words 223
- Emergent morphology 237
- Morphology as an adaptive discriminative system 271
- Readjustment: Rejected? 303
- Towards a Restricted Realization Theory 343
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Discussion 3
- We do not need structuralist morphemes, but we do need constituent structure 387
- Inner and Outer morphology in Greek adjectival participles 431
- Re-evaluating exocentricity in word-formation 461
- Affix ordering in Optimal Construction Morphology 479
- On the interplay of facts and theory 513
-
Discussion 4
- Editors’ note 537
- Index 541
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- About the Authors ix
- How are words related? 1
- Paradigms at the interface of a lexeme’s syntax and semantics with its inflectional morphology 27
- A postsyntactic morphome cookbook 59
-
Discussion 1
- Syncretism in paradigm function morphology and distributed morphology 95
- Phase domains at PF 121
- The costs of zero-derived causativity in English 163
- Spans and words 201
-
Discussion 2
- Building words 223
- Emergent morphology 237
- Morphology as an adaptive discriminative system 271
- Readjustment: Rejected? 303
- Towards a Restricted Realization Theory 343
-
Discussion 3
- We do not need structuralist morphemes, but we do need constituent structure 387
- Inner and Outer morphology in Greek adjectival participles 431
- Re-evaluating exocentricity in word-formation 461
- Affix ordering in Optimal Construction Morphology 479
- On the interplay of facts and theory 513
-
Discussion 4
- Editors’ note 537
- Index 541
