English and German derivation revisited
A Diachronic Construction Morphology approach to the growing complexity of bases
Today, a number of etymologically related native and non-native English and German suffixes derive nouns and
adjectives from entire phrases, suggesting that these suffixes have evolved clitic-like properties. By providing a diachronic
analysis of dictionary entries that is underpinned by corpus searches, this paper traces how this property of the schemas of
German ‑ig, ‑er and ‑ismus and of English ‑y,
‑er and ‑ism has evolved in the respective languages. The present analysis reveals that some
developments appear to have taken place in parallel, while others are language-specific, which offers novel insights to our
understanding of diachronic change affecting morphological schemas.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Common ancestry
- 3.Case study 1: German ‑ig and English ‑y
- 4.Case study 2: German ‑er and English ‑er
- 5.Case study 3: German ‑ism and English ‑ism
- 6.Theoretical implications
- 7.Conclusion
- Notes
-
References
References (42)
References
Bauer, L., Lieber, R., & Plag, I. (2013). The
Oxford reference guide to English morphology. Oxford University Press. 

Bendzko, T. (2011). Nur
noch kurz die Welt retten. Bendzko, T. Wenn Worte meine Sprache
wären. Meyer, S. (Producer). Sony Music Entertainment.
Booij, G. (2010). Construction
Morphology. Oxford University Press.
Booij, G., & Masini, F. (2015). The
role of second order schemas in the construction of complex
words. In Bauer, L., Kőrtvélyessy, L., & Štekauer, P. (Eds.). Semantics
of complex
words. (pp. 47–66). Springer. 

Booij, G. (2018). Introduction and overview. In Booij, G. (Ed.). The construction of words. (pp. 3–16). Springer. 

Booij, G. (2019). The
role of schemas in Construction Morphology. Word
Structure
12
(3), 385–395. 

Diewald, G., & Politt, K. (Eds.). (2022). Paradigms
regained: Theoretical and empirical arguments for the reassessment of the notion of
paradigm. Language Science Press.
Dixon, R. M. W. (2014). Making
new words. Morphological derivation in English. Oxford University Press. 

DWDS – Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen
Sprache (2023). Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der
Wissenschaften (Ed.) [URL]
Eitelmann, M.; Haugland, K., & Haumann, D. (2020). From
engl-isc to whatever-ish: A corpus-based investigation of
‑ish-derivation in the history of English. English Language and
Linguistics
24
(4), 1–31. 

Goldberg, A. E. (2006). Constructions
at work. The nature of generalization in language. Oxford University Press.
Goldberg, A. E. (2009). The
nature of generalization in language. Cognitive
Linguistics
20
(1), 93–127. 

Goldberg, A. E. (2019). Explain
me this: Creativity, competition, and the partial productivity of constructions. Princeton University Press.
Hein, K. (2017). Modeling
the properties of German phrasal compounds within a usage-based constructional
approach. In Trips, C., & Kornfilt, J. (Eds.): Further
investigations into the nature of phrasal
compounding (pp. 119–148) Language Science Press.
Hilpert, M. (2019). Higher-order
schemas in morphology: What they are, how they work, and where to find them. Word
Structure
12
(3), 262–273. 

Himmelmann, N. (2004). Lexicalization
and grammaticalization: Opposite or orthognal? In Bisang, W., Himmelmann, N., & Wiemer, B. (Eds.), What
makes grammaticalization? A look from its fringes and its
components (pp. 21–42) Mouton de Gruyter. 

Kempf, L. (2016). Adjektivsuffixe
in Konkurrenz. Wortbildungswandel vom Frühneuhochdeutschen zum Neuhochdeutsch. Mouton de Gruyter. 

Lakoff, G. (1987). Women,
fire, and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the mind. Chicago University Press. 

Leech, G., Hundt, M., Mair, C., & Smith, N. (2009). Change
in contemporary English. A grammatical study. Cambridge University Press. 

Lensch, A. (2018).
Fixer-uppers:
Reduplication in the derivation of phrasal verbs. In Finkbeiner, R., & Freywald, U. (Eds.) Exact
repetition in grammar and
discourse, (pp. 158–181) Mouton de Gruyter. 

Lensch, A. (2020). Onlookers,
passers-by, sweeper-uppers, opt-outers and dumber-downerers. A corpus-based study of English -er
nominalizations. Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz PhD dissertation.
Marchand, H. (1969
2). Categories
and types of Present-Day English word-formation. A synchronic-diachronic
approach. Beck.
Meibauer, J., Guttropf, A., & Scherer, C. (2004). Dynamic
aspects of German ‑er-nominals: A probe into the interrelation of language change and language
acquisition. Linguistics
42
(1), 155–193. 

Norde, M. (2009). Degrammaticalization. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

Oxford English Dictionary
Online (2023). Oxford University Press. [URL]
Onysko, A. (2019). Processes
of language contact in English influence on German. In Hickey, R. (Ed.) English
in the German-speaking
world. (pp. 185–207) Cambridge University Press. 

Plag, I. (2003). Word-formation
in English (2nd ed). Cambridge University Press. 

Pounder, A. (2000). Processes
and paradigms in word-formation morphology. Mouton de Gruyter. 

Rosch, E. (1975). Cognitive
reference points. Cognitive
Psychology
7
1, 532–547. 

Ryder, M. E. (1999).
Bankers
and blue-chippers. Of ‑er nominalizations in Present-day
English. English Language and
Linguistics
3
(2), 269–297. 

Scherer, C. (2005). Wortbildungswandel
und Produktivität. Eine empirische Studie zur nominalen -er-Derivation im
Deutschen.: Niemeyer. 

Sketch Engine (2023). Lexical
Computing CZ s.r.o. (Ed.) [URL]
The Guardian (and the Observer)
Corpus (1990–2004). provided by Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany.
Traugott, E. C., & Trousdale, G. (2013). Constructionalization
and constructional changes. Oxford University Press. 

Trips, C. (2009). Lexical
semantics and diachronic morphology. The development of -hood, -dom and -ship in the history of
English. Niemeyer. 

Werner, M. (2020). Three
diachronic sources for the development of ‑erei-based synthetic compounds in
German. Word
Structure
13
(3), 347–370. 

Woerterbuchnetz.de (2023). Kompetenzzentrum – Trier Center for
Digital Humanities (Ed.) [URL]
Wurzel, W. U. (1996). Morphologischer
Strukturwandel: Typologische Entwicklungen im Deutschen. In Lang, E., & Zifonun, G. (Eds.): Deutsch
typologisch (pp. 492–524). Mouton de Gruyter. 

Zwicky, A. M., & Pullum, G. K. (1983). Cliticisation
vs.
inflection. Language
59
(3), 502–513. 

Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Dong, Wenjie, Xi Mao, Wenjuan Lu, Jizhou Wang & Yao Cheng
2024.
Construction and Inference Method of Semantic-Driven, Spatio-Temporal Derivation Relationship Network for Place Names.
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 13:9
► pp. 327 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 october 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.