The semantic transparency of English compound nouns

The semantic transparency of English compound nouns

Author: Martin Schäfer

Publisher: Language Science Press

Published: 2018-01-22

Total Pages: 422

ISBN-13: 3961100306

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What is semantic transparency, why is it important, and which factors play a role in its assessment? This work approaches these questions by investigating English compound nouns. The first part of the book gives an overview of semantic transparency in the analysis of compound nouns, discussing its role in models of morphological processing and differentiating it from related notions. After a chapter on the semantic analysis of complex nominals, it closes with a chapter on previous attempts to model semantic transparency. The second part introduces new empirical work on semantic transparency, introducing two different sets of statistical models for compound transparency. In particular, two semantic factors were explored: the semantic relations holding between compound constituents and the role of different readings of the constituents and the whole compound, operationalized in terms of meaning shifts and in terms of the distribution of specifc readings across constituent families. All semantic annotations used in the book are freely available.


The Semantic Transparency of English Compound Nouns

The Semantic Transparency of English Compound Nouns

Author: Martin Schäfer

Publisher:

Published: 2020-10-09

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 9781013291258

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What is semantic transparency, why is it important, and which factors play a role in its assessment? This work approaches these questions by investigating English compound nouns. The first part of the book gives an overview of semantic transparency in the analysis of compound nouns, discussing its role in models of morphological processing and differentiating it from related notions. After a chapter on the semantic analysis of complex nominals, it closes with a chapter on previous attempts to model semantic transparency. The second part introduces new empirical work on semantic transparency, introducing two different sets of statistical models for compound transparency. In particular, two semantic factors were explored: the semantic relations holding between compound constituents and the role of different readings of the constituents and the whole compound, operationalized in terms of meaning shifts and in terms of the distribution of specifc readings across constituent families. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.


Compounds and Compounding

Compounds and Compounding

Author: Laurie Bauer

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-10-12

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 1108416039

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This controversial new book addresses the linguistic problems around compounds: words which sit on the borderline of syntax and morphology.


Creative Compounding in English

Creative Compounding in English

Author: Réka Benczes

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2006-01-01

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 9789027223739

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Metaphorical and metonymical compounds – novel and lexicalised ones alike – are remarkably abundant in language. Yet how can we be sure that when using an expression such as land fishing in order to speak about metal detecting, the referent will be immediately understood even if the hearer had not been previously familiar with the compound? Accordingly, this book sets out to explore whether the semantics of metaphorical and metonymical noun–noun combinations can be systematically analysed within a theoretical framework, where systematicity pertains to regularities in both the cognitive processes and the products of these processes, that is, the compounds themselves. Backed up by recent psycholinguistic evidence, the book convincingly demonstrates that such compounds are not semantically opaque as it has been formerly claimed: they can in fact be analysed and accounted for within a cognitive linguistic framework, by the combined application of metaphor, metonymy, blending, profile determinacy and schema theory; and represent the creative and associative word formation processes that we regularly apply in everyday language.


The Semantics of Compounding

The Semantics of Compounding

Author: Pius ten Hacken

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-04-21

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1107099706

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Presents three frameworks for studying morphology, offering different insights into the meaning of compounds.


Semantics of Word Formation and Lexicalization

Semantics of Word Formation and Lexicalization

Author: Pius ten Hacken

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Published: 2013-11-17

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 0748689613

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In the study of word formation, the focus has often been on generating the form. In this book, the semantic aspect of the formation of new words is central. It is viewed from the perspectives of word formation rules and of lexicalization. An extensive introduction gives a historical overview of the study of the semantics of word formation and lexicalization, explaining how the different theoretical frameworks used in the contributions relate to each other. Each chapter then concentrates on a specific question about a theoretical concept or a word formation process in a particular language and adopts a theoretical framework that is appropriate to the study of this question. From general theoretical concepts of productivity and lexicalization, the focus moves to terminology, compounding, and derivation. Theoretical frameworks discussed include Jackendoff's Conceptual Structure, Langacker's Cognitive Grammar, Lieber's lexical semantic approach to word formation, Pustejovsky's Generative Lexicon, Beard's Lexeme-Morpheme-Base Morphology, The onomasiological approach to terminology and word formation.


Complex Words

Complex Words

Author: Lívia Körtvélyessy

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-10-08

Total Pages: 399

ISBN-13: 1108788459

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A state-of-the-art survey of complex words, this volume brings together a team of leading international morphologists to demonstrate the wealth and breadth of the study of word-formation. Encompassing methodological, empirical and theoretical approaches, each chapter presents the results of cutting-edge research into linguistic complexity, including lexico-semantic aspects of complex words, the structure of complex words, and corpus-based case studies. Drawing on examples from a wide range of languages, it covers both general aspects of word-formation, and aspects specific to particular languages, such as English, French, Greek, Basque, Spanish, German and Slovak. Theoretical considerations are supported by a number of in-depth case studies focusing on the role of affixes, as well as word-formation processes such as compounding, affixation and conversion. Attention is also devoted to typological issues in word-formation. The book will be an invaluable resource for academic researchers and graduate students interested in morphology, linguistic typology and corpus linguistics.


Linguistic Borrowing in Bilingual Contexts

Linguistic Borrowing in Bilingual Contexts

Author: Fredric Field

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2002-12-13

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 9027296111

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A number of previous approaches to linguistic borrowing and contact phenomena in general have concluded that there are no formal boundaries whatsoever to the kinds of material that can pass from one language into another. At the same time, various hierarchies illustrate that some things are indeed more likely to be borrowed than others. Linguistic Borrowing in Bilingual Contexts addresses both, by examining claims of no absolute limits and synthesizing various hierarchies. It observes that all contact phenomena are systematic, and borrowing is no exception. Regarding forms, the determining factors lie in the nature of the morphological systems in contact and how they relate to one another. Two principles are proposed to determine the nature of the systematicity and interaction: the Principle of System Compatibility (PSC), and its corollary, the Principle of System Incompatibility (PSI). Together, these principles provide a consistent account of the possibilities and limits to borrowing.


Word-Formation in the World's Languages

Word-Formation in the World's Languages

Author: Pavol Štekauer

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2012-04-23

Total Pages: 391

ISBN-13: 052176534X

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Fills a gap in cross-linguistic research by being the first systematic survey of the word-formation of the world's languages. Data from fifty-five world languages reveals associations between word-formation processes in genetically and geographically distinct languages.


Word Formation and Transparency in Medical English

Word Formation and Transparency in Medical English

Author: Pius ten Hacken

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2015-10-19

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 1443885096

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As a side effect of the rapid progress in medical research and of the emergence of new medical conditions, medicine is a domain where new concepts have to be named more frequently than in many other domains. Because of the prominent position of English in medical research, most of these concepts are first named in English. This raises questions relating to the naming strategies adopted and the consequences of the choice of particular strategies. These consequences are not restricted to English, because the English terms often need to be translated and are sometimes borrowed. This volume consists of an introduction and eight chapters. The first four chapters focus on the choice of naming strategy and the consequences for the transparency of the resulting names in English. These chapters address the international pharmaceutical nomenclature, the terminology of psychiatry and of middle-ear surgery, and the use of neoclassical word formation. The following four chapters concentrate on the issues of translation and borrowing evolving from the choice of names in English. They address translation into Spanish, Slovak, Polish and Turkish.