A Contrastive Study On English Derivational Suffixes -able And -ible From The Perspective Of Construction Morphology

This thesis,based on the British National Corpus（BNC）,aims to make an in-depth investigation into the constructions of X-able and X-ible in terms of their frequency distributions,morphological features,semantic features,and constructional meanings from the perspective of Construction Morphology.With the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods,the findings are arrived at as follows:With regard to the frequency distributions,there is a significant difference in the distribution frequency of-able and-ible in the British National Corpus.And in both Written and Spoken English,the frequency of the suffix-able is significantly higher than that of-ible.In terms of morphological characteristics,it can be concluded as three points:Concerning the part of speech,X-able and X-ible constructions are mostly adjectives,followed by nouns.In addition,a few X-able constructions serve as verbs,indicating that the X-able constructions are more variable than X-ible.Concerning the part of speech of their bases,the verb bases dominate both in X-able and X-ible while the noun bases account for the least.Hence,X-able and X-ible constructions are mostly derived from verbs.Concerning the negative affixes,both X-able and X-ible negative adjectives are formed by negative prefixes rather than suffixes.Furthermore,the statistical results show that X-ible has seven negative prefixes,while X-able has six.From the viewpoint of the semantic features,the suffixes-able and-ible have certain similarities and differences.Similarly,both the suffixes-able and-ible can express the meanings of“capable of（being）...”and“having quality to...”.Differently,the suffix-able is more semantically complex,which can express five types of meanings;in contrast,-ible can express four types.Therefore,suffixes-able and-ible are not completely synonymous affixes.Additionally,in respect of constructionally-schematic interaction,although the two suffixes have the same word formation pattern:[[X]_V/N-able/ible]_Adj,the constructional schemata of X-able adjectives vary more than those of X-ible adjectives,that is,X-able adjectives have ten schemata,whereas X-ible adjectives have seven.As a result,X-able adjectives have a more active internal interaction.In conclusion,this study is of great significance for further understanding of the suffixes-able and-ible.It not only provides a new theoretical perspective and empirical support for the study of synonymous suffixes-able and-ible,but also has important guiding significance for vocabulary teaching and translation.