Deverbal Nouns Research Articles

Construction or Constructing? Some Observations on English Deverbal and Gerundial Nouns

English deverbal and gerundial nouns are traditionally analysed as instances of verbal nominalisations with a hybrid syntactic and semantic nature: while predominantly having nominal properties, they display some of the verbal characteristics as well. Using relevant examples from English corpora (BNC, ukWaC, enTenTen13), the paper examines the similarities and differences between the two types of nominalisations with special focus on their syntactic and semantic properties. The paper discusses deverbal/gerundial nouns in relation to the s.c. gerundial cline, which refers to the gradual process of nominalisation as observed in English. The analysis of examples shows that gerundial nouns are typically associated with the eventive interpretation, and that the structure of the nominal phrase headed by a gerundial noun directly reflects the syntactic properties of the verbal root. Deverbal nouns, on the other hand, are typically associated with the result-object interpretation, and the structure of the nominal phrase headed by a deverbal noun is less dependent on the syntactic properties of the verbal root. Despite these apparent differences, corpus data also reveal that the converse is also true: deverbal nouns can be used as gerundial nouns and vice versa.

Semantic and syntactic properties of the deverbative and deadjective nouns of the german language

Semantic and syntactic properties of the deverbative and deadjective nouns of the german language

Some characteristics of deverbal nominals in Slavic and Romance languages

In this paper we will investigate the nature of deverbal nominals across languages. Deverbal nouns are typically classified according to their word-formation model: affixation and conver-sion. Our study will compare the word formation of deverbal nominals in Slavic (Croatian, Slovenian and Polish) and Romance languages (Italian, French and Spanish) in order to show (i) that affixation corresponds to a specific mode of morphological operations and (ii) that the differences and similarities between deverbal nominals of these two language families follow from the properties of the base verbs. Furthermore, our analysis will try to shed some light on the distinction between nouns and verbs. The paper comprises three major thematic parts. The first part briefly reviews the basic notions and theoretical assumptions of Generative Grammar regarding word formation. We have especially tried to explain those notions that we draw from Distributed Morphology. This part further exposes the theoretical framework that is used in this paper. In the second part, deverbal nominals in Slavic languages are analysed and de-scribed. We primarily investigate the Slavic languages, since in these languages morphology plays a larger role in the construction of deverbal nouns. The third part contains an investiga-tion of the phrasal structure of nominalizations across the Romance languages. We close the work with a general conclusion about the behaviour of deverbal nouns in these two groups of languages. We concentrate mainly on the differences between the phrasal architecture of nom-inalizations and correspondent verbal constructions.

Word formation strategies in Degema

Given the fact that the vocabulary of a language is constantly enriched to express new objects or concepts and actions or states of being, this article identifies and discusses the different strategies employed by Degema in the creation of words. The article notes that the word creation strategies employed by Degema include affixation, compounding, reduplication, borrowing, clipping and semantic extension. Affixation, compounding, borrowing and semantic extension are observed to be more widespread in the language than reduplication and clipping, which is more commonly found in proper nouns. In addition, the article notes that apart from having a meaning- distinctive function in homonymous lexemes, and the fact that deverbal nouns, such as agentives, gerundives and state nouns, seem to be characterised by the presence of a high-downstepped-high tone pattern which interacts with other word creation processes, tone plays a comparatively minor role in word creation in Degema. A significant observation that this article makes, and which has cross-linguistic implications, is that it is difficult to draw a neat line between inflection and derivation, as certain prefixes and circumfixes in Degema not only create new words, which is a derivational function, but also mark number, which is an inflectional function.

Semantic Restrictions of Forming Derivative Nouns in the Class of the Process Verbs

Studying structural, phono-morphological, semantic, stylistic, word-forming and lexical conformities regulating syntagmatic connections in word-formation, requires studying system restrictions of the word-forming morphemes combinability, predetermined by the meaning of a word sign as well. The aim of the article is to identify semantic restrictions and those close to them in forming deverbative nouns from the process verbs. It was defined that such kinds of restrictions as semantic, semantic-pragmatic, semantic-stylistic, lexical and structural-morphological can counteract the possibility of the process verbs to take part in derivation processes. Semantic restrictions are located at the level of syntagmatic, differentiating semes and the abstract subcategoric seme “becoming”. Aspect semes don’t influence the possibility of the process verbs to take part in the word formation processes. Semantic restrictions can be predetermined both by the presence and by the absence of definite semes in a semantic structure of a word.

Concerning semantic models russian preproposition offers

One of the urgent problems of modern science - the study of the concrete facts of the language in the system of their relations at different levels. Interest in this plan represent deverbative nouns, and syntactic structures, which are based on these names. In the proposal deverbative able to perform a variety of functions, making as logical-semantic and structural complication. The article presents a method of describing semantic models preproposition simple sentences with deverbative in the role of senior independent member (subject) of the data syntax, given as an example of one of such models.

Iconicity and Distribution of Complex Verbal Phrases in English

The aim of the paper is to look into how the use and distribution of complex verbal phrases in English comply with the postulates of the theories of constructional iconicity, frequency asymmetries and naturalness, especially in the initial stages of their proliferation. The three theoretical frameworks are first outlined and compared, and predictions ensuing from them are formulated as to the expected behaviour of complex versus simple linguistic constructions. Two types of complex verbal constructions are examined from the point of view of these predictions: the progressive verbal phrase be + present participle and the composite predicate consisting of a semantically bleached verb + deverbal noun.

Связанные отглагольные имена существительные в тунгусо-маньчжурских языках: имя цели

Связанные отглагольные имена существительные в тунгусо-маньчжурских языках: имя цели

French N-age instrumentals: semantic properties of the base verb

The polysemy of deverbal event nouns—nominalisations—is frequently discussed in the literature. However, one interpretation associated with nominalising suffixes has never been evoked—the instrument interpretation. This paper is dedicated to the rare instrument interpretation of -age nouns (henceforth N-age): allumage ‘ignition’, attelage ‘harness’, bandage ‘bandage’, embrayage ‘clutch’, garnissage ‘garnish’, gommage ‘scrub’, maquillage ‘makeup’. We present the results of a study of instrumental N-age nominals, based on a sample of the deverbal-age nouns collected from the TLFi. We outline the semantic conditions that determine the presence of the instrument interpretation for these nouns and argue that this interpretation is not based on semantic drift from the corresponding eventive N-age; rather, it results from the specific properties of the morphological rule (i.e., its possible output(s)) and from the semantic properties of the input verb. This analysis leads us to reconsider the polysemy of deverbal nouns, not as systematically based on the notion of semantic drift from a derived lexeme, but, for some interpretations, as a construct of morphological rules, given specific semantic constraints. We conclude with a formalisation of the semantic sub-pattern within the N-age rule which generates the instrumental nominal. For the semantic representation of the base verb, we follow the theoretical framework of Levin and Rappaport (1995 and later). We incorporate this semantic formalisation in the wider representation of morphological rules envisaged in lexematic morphology.

Locuzioni preposizionali «evidenziative» del tipoa dimostrazione che/die costruzioni equivalenti con l’infinito in italiano, francese e spagnolo

The main aim of this article, based extensively on corpus evidence, is to describe a particular system of constructions denoting metaphorical showing in Italian: PPs introduced by a complex preposition headed byaand containing a deverbal noun, and corresponding PPs of the <;a+ infinitive> type. The most frequent forms area dimostrazione che/dianda dimostrare che/NP. Such expressions are typically, but not exclusively, used as parenthetical comments in written texts. Constructions of this kind, which have gone largely unnoticed by lexicographers and grammarians alike, are widespread in (journalistic) Italian and can be found, to some extent, also in French and, to a lesser degree, in Spanish.

Structure, form, and meaning in the mental lexicon: evidence from Arabic

Does the organization of the mental lexicon reflect the combination of abstract underlying morphemic units or the concatenation of word-level phonological units? We address these fundamental issues in Arabic, a Semitic language where every surface form is potentially analyzable into abstract morphemic units – the word pattern and the root – and where this view contrasts with stem-based approaches, chiefly driven by linguistic considerations, in which neither roots nor word patterns play independent roles in word formation and lexical representation. Five cross-modal priming experiments examine the processing of morphologically complex forms in the three major subdivisions of the Arabic lexicon – deverbal nouns, verbs, and primitive nouns. The results demonstrate that root and word pattern morphemes function as abstract cognitive entities, operating independently of semantic factors and dissociable from possible phonological confounds, while stem-based approaches consistently fail to accommodate the basic psycholinguistic properties of the Arabic mental lexicon.

The role of morphological structure in the processing of complex forms: evidence from Setswana deverbative nouns

The morphological structure of poly-morphemic words (e.g. government) can affect processing, but it is unclear whether this effect is due to morphological structure or combined formal/orthographic and semantic effects. Setswana, a Bantu language, allows us to explore morphological, formal, and semantic effects: It has a noun derivation with an agglutinative agentive affix (Class-1, mo-rer-i “preacher”) and a noun derivation with vowel changes and little form-overlap (Class-9, ther-o “sermon”) that both apply to verbs (rer-a “preach”). In our masked-priming experiments (SOA = 60 ms), Class-9-forms were even more effective as primes for verbs than Class-1-forms, despite reduced formal overlap, suggesting that abstract morphological structure affects processing independently of formal or semantic relationships. Moreover, Class-1-targets showed reduced priming, indicating that unprimed morphological target material (the affix) reduces priming.

Relational Adjectives at Interfaces

AbstractThe paper investigates the properties of relational adjectives at the syntax/morphology interface. Specifically, it proposes an analysis of relational adjectives that accounts of the mismatch between their nominal semantics/syntax and the adjectival morphology. Relational adjectives are semantically underlying nouns but they show several syntactic properties that set them apart from nouns such as deficient number, lack of anaphoric properties and incompatibility with complex event nouns. I account for these deficiencies by analyzing them as underspecified nouns with a minimal syntactic structure on a par with the one of default mass nouns proposed by Borer (2005). Moreover, positive evidence is provided for a split classification of relational adjectives as proposed in Bosque & Picallo (1996) according to which Thematic relational adjectives are arguments of deverbal nouns while Classificatory adjectives, restrictive modifiers of simple nouns. Special focus is placed on the parallel between Thematic adjectives and genitives in Romance that provides a theoretical answer to the syntax/morphology mismatch: In the spirit of Distributed Morphology (cf. Embick & Noyer 2006), I argue that the Case features of the nouns underlying in Thematic adjectives are relevant only at PF, conditioning the choice of Vocabulary Items expressing Case: the adjectival suffix or the de genitival preposition.

On Forming Deverbal Nouns and Adjectives in Russian

Some deverbal nouns and adjectives govern their complements as nouns and adjectives. In vladelec jazykov ‘polyglot’ genitive case is assigned by the Adnominal Genitive Rule, and in zabyvčiva na imena ‘forgetful of names’ na is required similarly as in the gloss. With other deverbal nouns and adjectives, e.g., vladenie jazykami ‘a command of languages’ and zabyvajuščaja imena ‘who forgets names’, the form of the complement is governed by the embedded verb; compare vladeet jazykami and zabyvaet imena . To capture this affinity, the noun phrase is represented as a noun headed by the noun suffix /-ij/ and containing a verb phrase corresponding to vladeet jazykami , and the adjective phrase is represented as an adjective headed by the adjective suffix /-ušč/ and containing a verb phrase corresponding to zabyvaet imena . These underlying representations give syntax the task of uniting /vlad/ with /-ij/ and /zaby/ with /-ušč/, matters traditionally relegated to a morphology component of the grammar. To relegate them to syntax is to enter uncharted territory.

The Indonesian verbal suffix –nya Nominalization or subordination?

The suffix ‑nya is one of the most frequent and polysemic suffixes in Indonesian. It can provide definite determination and topicalization. The “Verb‑nya“, which often appears in a topicalized subject Noun Phrase (NP), is generally labelled as a deverbal noun. Nevertheless, many syntactic constraints set it apart from Indonesian deverbal nouns. “Verb‑nya“ must be complemented by a NP, which can easily be reconstructed as a former subject: a sentence is topicalized and thus becomes a noun clause, generally the subject of the main clause Verb Phrase (VP). I argue that “Verb‑nya“ is a subordinate noun clause, almost always conveying causality. This causal noun clause, an innovation in formal written Indonesian (especially in the media), seems to fill a “gap“: the impossibility of beginning a sentence with a subordinating morpheme (‘that’, ‘because’).

A Study of the Deverbal Noun of the Light Verb Construction in English.

A Study of the Deverbal Noun of the Light Verb Construction in English.

The Problematic Forms of Nominalization in English: Gerund, Verbal Noun, and Deverbal Noun

This paper addresses a problematic issue concerning the three forms of nominalization: gerund, verbal noun, and deverbal noun. These nominals are problematic for two reasons. The first reason is that they mix different degrees of nominal and verbal properties, so the choice of these nominals for certain structure is not easily predictable. The second one is that there are many discrepancies concerning the terminology related to these forms used in linguistic references and studies. The confusing terminology is misleading for the researcher, teachers, and learners. The terms under investigation have different internal structures, but they share the same nominal functions and distribution within the sentence (subject, object, etc.). The study aims to point out the confusing discrepancies in terminology, the properties of these forms, the similarities and differences between these three forms, and accordingly their categories.

Scandinavian pancake constructions as a family of constructions

This paper deals with a classical problem in Scandinavian grammar, so-called ‘pancake sentences’, nicknamed after examples like Pannekaker er godt ‘Pancakes are good’ where there seemingly is disagreement between the plural subject and the predicative adjective in the neuter singular. Our aim is twofold. From the theoretical point of view, we shall argue that there are advantages with a construction-based approach, and that such an approach is superior to previous analyses within various generative frameworks.The main reason for this is that the data require generalizations over combinations of subjects and predicative adjectives at a rather specific level. From a more empirical point of view, we shall argue that Scandinavian displays a range of different, but related pancake constructions. For the first time, corpus data are brought into the debate. We show that a construction type that has not received much attention previously is in fact the most frequent type, namely constructions where the subject is a deverbal noun.

PROPRIEDADES VALENCIAIS DE NOMES DEVERBAIS: UMA REANÁLISE DE DADOS DO PROJETO NURC COM BASE NA LINGUÍSTICA TEXTUAL E NO ESTUDO DOS ANAFÓRICOS

Neste trabalho, revisitamos os resultados da pesquisa realizada por BONA (2011) relativa à valência de nomes deverbais em instâncias discursivas faladas. Considerando o estudo de Apothéloz e Chanet (2003) acerca dos pronomes definidos e dos pronomes demonstrativos nas nomeações, traçamos novas possibilidades de classificação dos dados com base na linguística textual e no estudo das anáforas.

Class 1 deverbal and nondeverbal nouns in Shona: A comparative analysis

The main aim of this article is to present a comparative analysis of some synchronic morphological properties of Shona class 1 non-deverbal and deverbal nouns. On the surface, these nouns, like most other Bantu nouns, look superficially similar; they comprise a noun class prefix and a noun stem. However, this belies a huge diversity amongst these nouns. We demonstrate that class 1 non-deverbal and deverbal nouns display the following differences: first, the stems of non-deverbal nouns are monomorphemic whereas those of deverbal nouns are minimally bimorphemic and are derived from verb roots. Secondly, the boundaries between the class prefix and the nominal stem behave differently. To this end, we use vowel hiatus resolution as a diagnostic tool to demonstrate the differences. Third, in forming diminutives of non-deverbal nouns, there is substitution of prefixes whereas for the deverbal nouns there is stacking of prefixes. We demonstrate that deverbal and non-deverbal nouns behave differently with respect to their phonology and derivational properties. We conclude that nouns in class 1 are not uniform and a theory of noun classes needs to be rich enough to account for the diversity. This research contributes towards the description and analysis of Shona nominal morphology in particular, and Bantu Linguistics in general.