Trask query

[Margaret E. Winters]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
I sent this response off-list yesterday to Larry Trask - it might be of
interest to others as well:
 
I think you are looking at a reanalysis of morphology - a kind of folk
etymology at work.  I included a long story about 'alcoholic' in a recent
paper in "Cognitive Linguistics" on analogical change and Kurylowicz (1997
last issue I think).  I'd be surprised if there were a single term for the
process since it seems to include at least reanalysis and sometimes the
insertion of a (thematic???) vowel as in workaholic.  I think there is a
suprasegmental kind of identification here - I agree that people didn't
consciously think of alcoholic as being alc + o + holic, but the stress
pattern corresponds to others where this kind of segmentation was possible.
 
Hope this helps - or at least doesn't hinder too much.
 
Margaret Winters
 
 
 
 
Margaret E. Winters
Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (Budget and Personnel)
Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, IL, 62901-4305
Phone:  (618) 549-0106 (Home); (618) 536-5535 (Office)
Fax:  (618) 453-3400
mew1 at siu.edu