Book contents
- Reflections on English Word-Formation
- Reflections on English Word-Formation
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Conventions and Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Basic Questions
- 2 Reflections on the Background to the Study of Word-Formation
- 3 Reflections on Why We Need Word-Formation
- 4 Reflections on the Recognition of Novelty in Words
- 5 Reflections on Blocking and Competition
- 6 Reflections on Potential and Norm
- 7 Reflections on Definition by Stipulation and on Word-Classes
- 8 Reflections on Analogical Word-Formation
- 9 Reflections on the Nature of the Lexeme
- Part II Semantic Questions
- Part III Syntactic Questions
- Part IV Interfaces
- Part V Patterns of Word-Formation in English
- Part VI Historical Questions
- Part VII Questions Involving Inflection
- Index of Topics
- Index of English Word-Forming Elements
- References
3 - Reflections on Why We Need Word-Formation
from Part I - Basic Questions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 October 2025
Book contents
- Reflections on English Word-Formation
- Reflections on English Word-Formation
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Conventions and Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Basic Questions
- 2 Reflections on the Background to the Study of Word-Formation
- 3 Reflections on Why We Need Word-Formation
- 4 Reflections on the Recognition of Novelty in Words
- 5 Reflections on Blocking and Competition
- 6 Reflections on Potential and Norm
- 7 Reflections on Definition by Stipulation and on Word-Classes
- 8 Reflections on Analogical Word-Formation
- 9 Reflections on the Nature of the Lexeme
- Part II Semantic Questions
- Part III Syntactic Questions
- Part IV Interfaces
- Part V Patterns of Word-Formation in English
- Part VI Historical Questions
- Part VII Questions Involving Inflection
- Index of Topics
- Index of English Word-Forming Elements
- References
Summary
This chapter raises the question of why we need to study word-formation as well as other linguistic structures, why word-formation is different and what makes word-formation different.
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- Reflections on English Word-Formation , pp. 35 - 38Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Bauer, Laurie. (2000). Word. In Booij, G., Lehmann, C. & Mugdan, J. (eds.), Morphology: An International Handbook of Inflection and Word-Formation. Berlin: de Gruyter, 247–57.Google Scholar
Dixon, Robert M.W. & Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y.. (2002). Word: A typological framework. In Robert, M.W. Dixon & Alexandra, Y. Aikhenvald (eds.), Word: A Cross-Linguistic Typology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1–40.Google Scholar
Hippisley, Andrew. (2015). The word as a universal category. In John, R. Taylor (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Word. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 246–69.Google Scholar
Hockett, Charles F. (1944). Review of Linguistic Interludes and Morphology: The Descriptive Analysis of Words by E.A. Nida. Language 20, 252–5.Google Scholar
Zipf, George K. ([1949] 1965). The Psycho-Biology of Language. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
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