35.2365, Calls: Boundaries and Continua in Affixation: Diachronic and Synchronic Perspectives

Sat Aug 31 03:05:02 UTC 2024

LINGUIST List: Vol-35-2365. Sat Aug 31 2024. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 35.2365, Calls: Boundaries and Continua in Affixation: Diachronic and Synchronic Perspectives

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Date: 28-Aug-2024
From: Alexandra Bagasheva [a.bagasheva at uni-sofia.bg]
Subject: Boundaries and Continua in Affixation: Diachronic and Synchronic Perspectives

Full Title: Boundaries and Continua in Affixation: Diachronic and
Synchronic Perspectives

Date: 25-Jun-2025 - 28-Jun-2025
Location: Košice, Slovakia
Contact Person: Alexandra Bagasheva
Meeting Email: a.bagasheva at uni-sofia.bg
Web Site: http://kaa.ff.upjs.sk/en/event/45/word-formation-theories-vi
i-typology-and-universals-in-word-formation-vi

Linguistic Field(s): Linguistic Theories; Morphology; Pragmatics;
Semantics; Typology

Call Deadline: 28-Feb-2025

Meeting Description:

Van Goethem (2020: 1) defines affixation as “the morphological process
that consists of adding an affix (i.e., a bound morpheme) to a
morphological base. It is cross-linguistically the most common process
that human languages use to derive new lexemes (derivational
affixation) or to adapt a word’s form to its morphosyntactic context
(inflectional affixation). Suffixes (i.e., bound morphemes following
the base) and prefixes (i.e., bound morphemes preceding the base) are
the most common affixes, with suffixation being more frequently
recorded in the world’s languages than prefixation. Minor types of
affixation include circumfixation and infixation. Conversion and
back-formation are related derivational processes that do not make use
of affixation.”
This theory-neutral definition seems exhaustive and straightforward,
but makes some problematic assumptions. It assumes the structure of
words is based on morphemes, as has been the norm since the late 19th
c. (Aronoff 2018: 3). It assumes there are clear boundaries between
word-formation processes. It distinguishes between derivational and
inflectional affixation, assigning different values and types of
products to them. It recognizes boundedness as a definitional property
of affixes as linguistic elements.

These assumptions have been questioned and doubts have been voiced
about the implicated categorical distinctions. There are significant
differences between morpheme-based (employing an item-and-arrangement
approach), lexeme-based (associated with an item-and-process approach)
and word-based (utilising a word-and-paradigm approach) architectures
(for an overview see e.g. Stewart 2016) and between syntagmatic and
paradigmatic approaches to word-formation (see e.g. Booij 2001; Booij
& Lieber 2004; Štekauer 2014; van Marle 1985), which undermines the
first assumption of the morpheme (including affixes) as the central
element in the structure of words. As Ralli (2010: 58) notes,
“although different, derivation and compounding are not sharply
distinguished, and [...] their borderline can be permeable in both
ways”, leading to disputes over the demarcation between the concepts
of splinter, (bound) root, affixoid, and affix. Ten Hacken (2014: 1)
points out  “Whereas the core opposition between inflection and
derivation is fairly obvious, the precise boundary between the two is
more difficult to determine”. Trousdale and Traugott (2010: 1)
emphasize that “gradience has been at the center of recent discussion
about the synchronic architecture of grammars”.

References:

Aronoff, Mark (2018). Morphology and words: A memoir. In O. Bonami, G.
Boyé, G. Dal, H. Giraudo & F. Namer (Eds.), The Lexeme in Descriptive
and Theoretical Morphology, 3–18. Berlin: Language Science Press.
Booij, Geert (2001). The Morphology of Dutch. Oxford: OUP.
Booij, Geert & Lieber, Rochelle (2004). On the paradigmatic nature of
affixal semantics in English and Dutch. Linguistics 42(2): 327–357.
Narrog, Heiko & Heine, Bernd (2021). Grammaticalization. Oxford: OUP.
Ralli, Angela (2010). Compounding vs. derivation. In S. Scalise & I.
Vogel (Eds.), Cross-Disciplinary Issues in Compounding, 57–73.
Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Stewart, Thomas (2016). Contemporary Morphological Theories: A User’s
Guide. Edinburgh: EUP.
Štekauer, Pavol (2014). Derivational paradigms. In R. Lieber & P.
Štekauer (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Derivational Morphology,
354–369. Oxford: OUP.
ten Hacken, Pius (2014). Delineating derivation and inflection. In R.
Lieber & P. Štekauer (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Derivational
Morphology, 10–26. Oxford: OUP.
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs & Trousdale, Graeme (Eds.) (2010).
Gradience, Gradualness and Grammaticalization. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
van Goethem, Kristel (2020). Affixation in morphology. In M. Aronoff
(Ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics.
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/97801993846
van Marle, Jaap (1985). On the Paradigmatic Dimension of Morphological
Creativity. Foris

Call for Papers:

Workshop organizers: Alexandra Bagasheva (Sofia), Jesús Fernández
Domínguez (Granada), Akiko Nagano (Shizuoka), Vincent Renner (Lyon)
In view of all the debatable issues and still open questions in
affixation reserach , we invite word-formationists to revisit a number
of boundaries and continua in affixation, from a diachronic or
synchronic perspective, through specific case studies or more
theoretically oriented discussions. The list of topics includes, but
is not limited to:
 a) derivation and inflection;
 b) splinters, (bound) roots, affixoids, and affixes;
 c) the emergence of new derivational affixes (= derivational
affixization);
 d) affixization and other "ization" processes (cf. Narrog & Heine
2021: 271) such as constructionalization, grammaticalization,
lexicalization, and morphologization,
 e) evaluative and non-evaluative affixation,
 f) affixation and deaffixation (= back-formation),
 g) affixes in language contact situations.

Abstracts of no more than 300 words (plus references and
figures/tables if any) should be sent to the 4 workshop organizers:
a.bagasheva at uni-sofia.bg, jesusferdom at go.ugr.es,
nagano.9 at u-shizuoka-ken.ac.jp, and vincent.renner at univ-lyon2.fr by
February 28. 2025. Acceptance will be notified by March 15, 2025.

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