A Corpus-based Analysis On English Suffixoid -wise From Synchronic And Diachronic Perspectives

Suffixoid -wise, with both features of free morpheme and suffix, shows its increasing currency these decades by fastening to noun, adjective or adverb to form new words, best represented by sought-after viewpoint wise-words. This thesis aims to carry out a synchronic and diachronic analysis in a corpus-based way, for the absence of multi-dimensional analysis for its grammatical, semantic and register traits as well as diachronic change statistically. This research is conducive to deepening the understanding and to promoting grammatical and lexical teaching of suffixoid-wise.This thesis tends to outline six lexical meanings, namely, manner, direction, skill, state, position and viewpoint in light of previous scholarship. It manages to cover four online corpora as COCA, COHA, BNC and TIME to retrieve data in aspects as register difference, frequency and historical change for further process and detailed analysis along with examples and etymological information. We focus on analysis for how -wise develops into suffixoid and how six lexical meanings expand and in what time sequence.This thesis finds out, through both quality and quantity analysis, that:suffixoid -wise enjoys high frequency in American and British English winning increasing recognition. Synchronic-wise, suffixoid -wise is more productive than-free and less than -friendly, indicating that it is more suffixized than -friendly based on prototype theory. It witnesses highest productivity in TIME where magazines and newspapers are main components. And register analysis tells that -wise is apt to show in informal and conversational registers or in "soft" topics as entertainment and sports etc, and also in topics with officialdom and authority as laws and religion. Viewpoint-wise and skill -wise present high productivity among its peers, and suffixoid -wise attaches mainly to abstract noun and also interestingly to proper noun, action noun and adjective or adverb to form new coinages, which coincides with features shown in hapax legomena with -wise. Analysis over entrenched wise-words as "otherwise" implies the sequential order of development among six meanings as manner, direction, skill, state, position and finally viewpoint. Diachronic-wise, suffixoid -wise is most productive during 1940s, rebounds after 1980s and enjoys a sound momentum thereafter, while entrenched wise-words show a downward trend apart from relatively stable "otherwise" and "likewise". Grammaticalization as paradigmaticization, expansion, loss of boundary and fixation etc are applied to explain how -wise develops into suffixoid, and also semantic weakening and schema in construction morphology are employed to clarify the expansion of six semantic meanings.