Abstract
In this article we analyse, assess and interpret how prefixes have been treated in some selected grammatical and lexicographic works published by the Real Academia de la Lengua throughout the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Our starting point is the Diccionario de la lengua espanola (DRAE 2001), which classifies the prefixes extracted from a previous study (Varela and Martin Garcia 1999) under two major grammatical categories: ‘prefix’ and compounding element’. We aim at determining why units of an apparently similar nature are labelled in two different ways in DRAE (2001): ‘prefixes’ and ‘composite / compounding’ elements (a case in point is that of the prefixes ‘inter-‘ and ‘super-‘, which come from the Latin prepositions INTER and SUPER, also described as prefixes). Besides, this study briefly reviews the historical categorial treatment given to a selection of prefixes in from several editions of this academic dictionary (Diccionario de autoridades, 1726-39, and DRAE 1803, 1884, 1925 and 1970). Finally, it is our belief that a morphological description is essential for an accurate grammatical description, we additionally offer an overview of the treatment of prefixes in the grammars of the Real Academia de la Lengua (GRAE) published between 1771 and 1931. The present study also examines the ideas underlying the Esbozo de una nueva gramatica de la lengua espanola (1973) and
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