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
- Part II Semantic Questions
- 10 Reflections on How Words Bear Meaning, and What This Implies for Complex Words
- 11 Reflections on Tautology and Redundancy
- 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
10 - Reflections on How Words Bear Meaning, and What This Implies for Complex Words
from Part II - Semantic 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
- Part II Semantic Questions
- 10 Reflections on How Words Bear Meaning, and What This Implies for Complex Words
- 11 Reflections on Tautology and Redundancy
- 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
Speakers frequently (perhaps always) have only partial knowledge of the meanings of the words they use, and may have demonstrably wrong information about them. When it comes to morphologically complex words, we must therefore expect the same to be true, and ‘meaning’ of a new word to be more specific than the linguistic structure of that word indicates. The meaning conveyed by inflection is more precise than the meaning conveyed by derivational affixes.
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- Reflections on English Word-Formation , pp. 77 - 89Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
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