Scaling morphosemantic transparency/opacity: A corpus-linguistic and acquisitionist study of German diminutives

Abstract

The judicious use of electronic corpora allows new possibilities in the study of word formation. In contrast to the usual way of contrasting morphosemantic transparency (or compositionality) and morphosemantic opacity (or non-compositionality) in a dichotomous way, we present a ten-step scale from maximum transparency to total opacity, exemplified with the common German diminutive suffixation in -chen and Austro-Bavarian -erl.Our corpus-linguistic investigation allows new insights into problems of distribution of type and token frequency according to degrees of morphosemantic transparency/opacity and of the two rivalling diminutive formations.An analysis of diminutive acquisition is added as external evidence for or against previous claims. Acquisition data come from three longitudinal corpora and from 24 children of a transversal quasi-longitudinal study. Here the order of acquisition of diminutives according to the ten-step scale of morphosemantic transparency/opacity and to adult type and token frequency will be presented and the relation between morphosemantic and morphopragmatic meaning will be discussed.

The Morphosemantic Transparency/Opacity of Novel English Analogical Compounds and Compound Families

“…To these aims, the study proposes a scale of morphosemantic transparency/opacity for the analysis of compound constituents (cf. Schwaiger et al 2017 for German diminutives; a much smaller one by Talamo, Celata & Bertinetto 2016 for Italian derivatives). In particular, the compound constituents are analysed in connection with: 1) their degree of transparency (vs. opacity, including metaphorical/metonymic meaning), 2) their part-of-speech, and 3) their semantic contribution in the construction of the whole compound's meaning (cf.…”

“…The scale of morphosemantic transparency elaborated for the analysis of compound constituents is partially adapted from Schwaiger et al (2017). The authors have elaborated a scale of morphosemantic transparency/opacity for the analysis of German diminutives which is finer-grained and more realistic than the binary opposition between transparency and opacity used in the literature for compounds' representation and processing (e.g.…”

Επίδραση Της Δομής Των Συνθέτων Στην Ερμηνεία

“…Στο μέγεθος της σημασιολογικής αδιαφάνειας παρουσιάζονται διαβαθμίσεις και έτσι υπάρχουν σύνθετα απολύτως αδιαφανή (3α, β), η σημασία των οποίων απορρέει μόνο μεταφορικά από τα επιμέρους συστατικά τους (fully opaque), άλλα λιγότερο αδιαφανή (partially opaque) και άλλα περισσότερο διαφανή (3γ), εφόσον η σημασία του συνθέτου είναι κατανοητή με βάση τα επιμέρους συστατικά του (βλ. Jarema et al 1999, Libben et al 2003, Ξυδόπουλος 2008: 194, Bourque 2014, Körtvélyessy et al 2015,Lorenz & Zwitserlood 2016, Schwaiger et al 2017, Smolka & Libben 2017. Ορισμένα παραδείγματα στη Νέα Ελληνική είναι τα εξής (βλ.…”