Abstract
AbstractUniverbation is the syntagmatic condensation of a sequence of words recurrent in discourse into one word, as when the Spanish combinationa tras(to back) becomesatrás‘behind’. It affects both lexemes and grammatical formatives. Unlike processes of word formation, including conversion of a syntactic construction into a word, as inforget-me-not, and compounding, as in Spanishlavaplatos‘dishwasher’, univerbation is a spontaneous process. There are two main types of univerbation: phrasal univerbation downgrades a phrase to a word, as when Latinterrae motus‘earth’s movement’ becomes Spanishterremoto‘earthquake’. Transgressive univerbation coalesces a string of words which do not form a syntagma into a word, as when Frenchpar ce quebecomesparce que. A set of univerbations may share structural features and may therefore evolve into a pattern of compounding. Thus,blackbirdoriginated by univerbation, but may now provide a pattern of compounding. As a consequence, univerbation and compounding are not always easily distinguishable. The discussion uses empirical evidence adduced in earlier work, mostly from Romance and Germanic languages. Its aim is not to present novel phenomena but to provide a theoretical background for the phenomenology and improve on available analyses.
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