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2 - Semantically Subtractive Morphology

from Part I - Lexico-Semantic Aspects of Complex Words

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2020

By
Stephen Anderson
Edited by
Lívia Körtvélyessy  and
Pavol Štekauer
Lívia Körtvélyessy
Affiliation:
P. J. Šafárik University, Košice, Slovakia
Pavol Štekauer
Affiliation:
P. J. Šafárik University, Košice, Slovakia
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Summary

Morphologically complex forms are related to their bases in two ways: some alteration (perhaps vacuous) of form is correlated with some alteration (also possibly vacuous) of meaning. In a sort of ideal case, this is representable by the addition of a morpheme bearing both phonological and semantic content, comparable to a Saussurean (minimal) sign. Criticism of the claim that this is indeed the general case has focused on formal relations that cannot be seen as strictly additive: ablaut, umlaut, consonant shifts, metathesis, truncation, and other markers that apparently change the shape of the base rather than simply adding material to it. The present paper brings into the discussion the opposite side of this coin: instances in which it is the semantics, rather than the phonology of the base form, that is altered in a non-additive way in a morphologically derived form. Specific cases involve the removal of a component of meaning associated with one argument of the base, correlated with the addition of a component of form. These examples constitute a challenge for morpheme-based views of morphology, comparable to that posed by non-concatenative formal markers, and a challenge to the claim that morphology is always semantically monotonic.

Keywords

MonotonicitySubtractive MorphologyDe-transitivizationAnti-Causative
Type
Chapter
Information
Complex Words
Advances in Morphology
 , pp. 36 - 54
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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