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David Frank wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid024d01c7b9c0$53d780c0$4b0b16ac@Waxhaw.Jaars.Org"
type="cite">
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<div><snip> </div>
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<div> In this recent discussion, I don't think anyone has mentioned
the obvious fact that the -ee words are based on the pattern of the
feminine form of the past participle of French verbs. For example there
is French employer 'to employ' with the past tense form employé
'employed' doubling as a masculine adjectival form and employée as the
feminine adjectival form. The corresponding French noun is employeur ,
from which we evidently get English "employer." </div>
<div> </div>
<div> We can expect to have some -ee words that don't have a -er or
-or counterpart, such as "divorcee" or "amputee." On the other hand, I
checked an unabridged dictionary just now and did find "divorcer"
listed as "one who divorces." </div>
<div> </div>
</blockquote>
Maybe the origin of <i>-ee</i> in English has not been mentioned
because it is not all that relevant to its current usage. According to
my information it came into Anglo-Norman from Old French. It occurs
earliest in the 15th c. in legal terms of AN origin denoting the
recipient of a grant or the like, e.g. <i>feoffee</i>, <i>grantee</i>,
<i>lessee</i>, <i>patentee</i>, on the model of which many others were
made denoting the indirect object of verbs. So originally <i>-ee</i>
was used as a case marker to mark IO/recipient.<br>
<br>
However, according to Urdang (1982) its current usage has expanded
beyond these beginnings. Now it has (at least) the following senses:<br>
<br>
1. 'A person or persons that are passive objects of the action named by
the verb acting as the combining root': <i>divorcee</i>, <i>employee</i>,
<i>nominee</i>.<br>
2. 'A person or persons that are recipients of the result of an
action': <i>amputee</i>, <i>biographee</i>, <i>selectee</i>.<br>
3. 'A person furnished with' the thing named by the combining root: <i>custodee</i>,
<i>patentee</i>, <i>mortgagee</i>. <br>
4. 'A person that performs' the action named by the combining root: <i>escapee</i>,
<i>salvagee</i>, <i>standee</i>.<br>
<br>
Senses 1, 2 and 4 are based on the semantic properties of the verb from
which the <i>-ee</i> form is derived and sense 3 is based on the thing
named by the combining root. But Chris Barker's semantic analysis (see
below) only seems to take into account the senses that can be related
to verbs.<br>
<br>
The formation of <i>-ee</i> nouns systematically adheres to three
essentially
semantic constraints: <br>
first, the referent of an <i>-ee</i> noun must be sentient; <br>
second, the denotation of an <i>-ee</i> noun must be episodically
linked (as
defined below) to the denotation of its stem; <br>
and third, a use of an <i>-ee</i> noun entails a relative lack of
volitional
control on the part of its referent.<br>
<br>
(39) A derived noun N is EPISODICALLY LINKED to its stem S iff for
every stage <<i>x, e</i>> in the stage set of N, <i>e</i> is a
member of the set of events that characterizes S.<br>
<br>
Yet sense 3 above which is based on the meaning of the noun stem seems
to be the one that relates closest to the original meaning of <i>-ee</i>
in AN.<br>
<br>
To answer Fritz, it is not unusual for a language to borrow a form,
such as an affix, from another language and give it a new and different
function. The interesting aspect to <i>-ee</i>, however, is that it is
still productive in English but there are restrictions on its use in
word formation. Chris Barker attempts to characterize those
restrictions in semantic terms rather than syntactic terms.<br>
<br>
But all of this still doesn't answer the original inquiry. Which is
"correct" <i>mentee</i> or <i>mentoree</i>? Well, the answer is that
neither properly follow the word formation rules for <i>-ee</i> in
English, so neither are strictly correct.<br>
<br>
If you adopt the deverbal derivation of <br>
mentor (v) -> mentoree (n)<br>
then you also need a corresponding derivation of<br>
mentor (v) -> mentorer (n)<br>
<br>
If you adopt the denominal derivation of<br>
mentor (n) -> ment (v) -> mentee (n)<br>
then you are relying on a verb, <i>ment</i> (v), in the derivation
that does not exist in English.<br>
<br>
However, it is this latter derivation that seems to be the most widely
used according to the google stats. From my experience the acceptance
of new words in English (and probably other languages) is not so much
dependent on whether they are "properly formed" or not but on whether
they catch on and are widely used or not.<br>
<br>
John Roberts<br>
<br>
<br>
-- <br>
********************<br>
John R Roberts<br>
SIL International Linguistics Consultant<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:dr_john_roberts@sil.org">dr_john_roberts@sil.org</a><br>
********************
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