HOW A MEANINGLESS AFFIX CAN CREATE MEANINGFUL DERIVATIVES: A CASE STUDY OF (NON)POLYSEMY - Laboratoire de Linguistique Formelle
Article Dans Une Revue Lingue e Linguaggio Année : 2024

HOW A MEANINGLESS AFFIX CAN CREATE MEANINGFUL DERIVATIVES: A CASE STUDY OF (NON)POLYSEMY

Bernard Fradin

Résumé

The French suffixation in -ier, -ière is a system inherited from Latin, which has been largely remodeled. One of its most striking features is the great number of different meanings that the derived nouns in -ier show. Contrary to what may seem, it is argued that the suffix -ier should not be considered as polysemic and that such a hypothesis even prevents to correctly describe the facts. The suffix is meaningless which means that compositionality is not an option to account for the meaning of the derivatives in -ier. It is proposed that this meaning be developed on the basis of inferences drawn from the semantics of their base name and regulated by the derivational series and families in which the derived Ns are included. Suffixes which supposedly manifest a true polysemy are discussed and it is shown that this is not a true polysemy, as is the case with lexemes, but an effect of the multiplicity of meaning obtained by lexeme formation patterns.

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hal-04849292 , version 1 (19-12-2024)

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  • HAL Id : hal-04849292 , version 1

Citer

Bernard Fradin. HOW A MEANINGLESS AFFIX CAN CREATE MEANINGFUL DERIVATIVES: A CASE STUDY OF (NON)POLYSEMY. Lingue e Linguaggio, 2024, XXIII (2), pp.291-315. ⟨hal-04849292⟩
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