| The suffixoid is a kind of language continuum existing between independent morpheme and typical affix.Derived from the old English Period,it owns features of both free words and affixes.Suffixoid is kept in the category of affixoid,which can be attached to noun,adverb and adjective to form new adverb or adjective.During the long evolution,it becomes more productive,the meaning and the usage distribution in COCA（Corpus of Contemporary American English）corpus also present different features.Booij（2010）points that although suffixoids can be used to form compounds,they still can be used as independent lexemes.When suffixoids act as a part of compounds,their meanings are becoming more specific,but are limited to a certain degree.As an important part in linguistics,the study on suffixoid catches the eye of many researchers,like semantics,cognitive linguistics,English and Chinese comparative linguistics and corpus linguistics.The previous research,nevertheless,mainly focuses on the semantic bleaching,grammaticalization of a certain kinds of suffixoid.The questions about the relevant features in the formation of construction and generative mechanisms still need further analysis.Booij proposes Construction Morphology in 2010,which puts suffixoid into its research scope.There are many kinds of suffixoids in English,and this thesis regards de-nominal adjective suffixoid as research objective for its highest productivity.The Construction Morphology and Usage-based Theory are applied together to analyze constructional meaning,morphological features and generative mechanisms of the construction formed by de-nominal adjective suffixoid.In order to further explore the constructional meaning,productivity,usage distribution in COCA and generative mechanisms of de-nominal adjective suffixoid,this thesis summarizes three high-frequently used suffixoids:“-worthy”,“-centered”,“-style”based on the three classifications in Suffixal Rivalry in Adjective Formation:A Cognitive-Corpus Analysis of Hamawand（2007）like adjective-originated de-nominal adjective suffixoid,past-participle-originated de-nominal adjective suffixoid and noun-originated de-nominal adjective suffixoid.Sample analyses combining quantitative and qualitative approaches are adopted to answer three questions:1)Do the target suffixoids change in form and meaning during the process of constructional formation?If they change,What are the changes?2)What about the usage frequency and distribution of the target suffixoids?3)What are the generative mechanisms of the de-nominal adjective suffixoids?To answer the above questions,COCA（Corpus of Contemporary American English）and EXCEL are adopted by this thesis as data repository and statistical tool to retrieve and analyze“-worthy”,“-centered”,“-style”.The results show:Firstly,during the constructional formation process of the target suffixoids,both form and meaning have changed.As for the form,“-worthy”and“-style”change.The former is derived from“weortful”in Old English;the latter is from“stile”or“estile”in Old French and“stilus”in Latin.While“-centered”has no change.As for the constructional meanings of the target suffixoids,they can be generalized and abstracted,which are represented through schema and sub-schema.The meanings of“-worthy”are“deserving the thing mentioned”and“suitable for something mentioned”.The ratio of meaning distribution is 36%:64%.Its general schema can be summarized as[[[X]Nk[-worthy]i]Aj←→[[SEMi with relation R to SEMk]ENTITY]j].As the word base of target suffixoids is noun,based on The Latest Oxford English Grammar Handbook,it can be classified as common nouns,proper nouns,abstract nouns,and collective nouns.As for“-worthy”,abstract nouns（57%）ranking the first,followed by common nouns（36%）,proper nouns（5%）and collective nouns（2%）.While the constructional meanings of“-centered”are“having the thing mentioned as the most important feature”and“having the specified subject as the center of attention mentioned”.The meaning ratio is 9%:91%with the general schema being[[[X]Nk[-centered]i]Aj←→[[SEMi with relation R to SEMk]ENTITY]j].Among the four word bases,abstract and common nouns account for the same occupation 40%,followed by proper nouns（11%）and collective nouns（9%）.Differing from the above suffixoids,“-style”only has one constructional meaning:“having the type of style mentioned”,whose schema is[[[X]Nk[-style]i]Aj←→[[SEMi with relation R to SEMk]ENTITY]j].As for the part of speech of the word base,the proper nouns ranks the first with 41%,which is followed by common nouns,abstract nouns and collective nouns accounting for 31%,26%and 2%respectively.The meaning of compounds containing the target suffixoids is from the semantic compositionality of its parts.Secondly,the productivity of three suffixoids is different from each other.Based on Baayen’s formula:P=n1aff/Naff,the P ratio presents that the productivity for the suffixoids is“-worthy”（0.0410）,“-centered”（0.0689）,“-style”（0.1076）.According to the aforementioned analysis,the number of noun-originated de-nominal adjective suffixoid is least among the three categories.However,its P ratio is the largest,indicating the highest productivity of noun-originated de-nominal adjective suffixoid.Moreover,the stability of the productivity is judged by the comparison with other commonly used suffixoids like“-wise”,“-proof”,“-bound”and“-type”.The sequence is-bound<-worthy<-wise<-proof<-centered<-free<-style<-type.It can be summarized that“-worthy”is a little bit less than“-wise”;whose productivity is relatively lower.While the productivity of“-centered”and“-style”is relatively higher and more stable.In light of the Prototype Theory,the productivity and suffixality bear a negative correlation of independence.The more prototypical the affix is,the less productive it will be.Besides,the gradually decreasing usage of hyphen suggests the popularity of the three suffixoids,they are more accepted than before.As for usage distribution in COCA corpus,the three target suffixoids also show different features.The worthy-formations are most frequently used in Academic,while Spoken ranks lowest.It is more often used in“hard”issues like philosophy,religion and editorial,which conveys characteristic of formality.Similarly,the centered-formations are also most used in Academic with the Spoken being the least used one.“-centered”tends to carry feature of formality,as it is more frequently used in“hard”texts like religious issue and educational theme with authority and logic.However,differing from the former two suffixoids,“-style”is more productive in Magazine,while less in Fiction.It is inclined to be used in“soft”issues with informality as movie and life.Thirdly,according to the research,there are three generative mechanisms for the construction formed by de-nominal adjective suffixoid.They are metaphor,analogization and economy principle of language,which work together to motivate the formation of the target suffixoids.Metaphor and analogization are considered the internal factors,also the explanations from cognitive aspect;while the economy principle of language is regarded as the external factor.As a semantic mapping from source domain to target domain,metaphor motivates the meaning change from concrete to abstract.The functional meaning formed on the basis of lexical meaning reflects the change from lexical item to functional item within the formation process.Analogization is used by speakers to create many new expressions to meet human’s communication requirements.It is a principle of innovation and conservation,and the words created through analogization reflect the development of society.As the number of words through analogization increases significantly,its influence on the production of language,especially on the structural features of new words emerges.Economy principle of language is the prerequisite for the appearance of a specific language.In summary,the process of de-nominal construction formation reflects many morphological features.The generative mechanisms can also be described from external and internal aspects.This thesis brings de-nominal adjective suffixoid into the research category of construction,which is a complement to the research of de-nominal construction to a certain extent. |
