INVESTIGATING THE HIGH FREQUENCY AND MORPHOLOGICAL PRODUCTIVITY OF VERB AND ADJECTIVE COMPOUNDS IN LEGAL ENGLISH CORPUS
Abstract
This paper explores the complex relationship between morphological productivity and the high frequency of words in English. It delves into the theoretical underpinnings of these concepts, their empirical manifestations, and their significance in linguistics and cognitive science. By examining key studies and theories in the field, this paper aims to shed light on the complex interplay between morphological productivity and word frequency, offering insights into language acquisition, processing, and evolution. The paper also analyses the high frequency and the morphological productivity of adjective and verb compounds in EFL written contexts (Legal English context). The instruments used in this paper were research papers written by SEEU EFL students. A quantitative analysis of the high frequency and morphological productivity of compounds was performed using this dataset. Also, the correlation between morphological productivity and high frequency is being elaborated. The high-frequency list of compounds was calculated based on the compounds that appeared more than once in the analysed corpus. Whereas hapax legomenon was the quantitative indicator used to assess the output of the compounding patterns. The participants involved in this study were 35 undergraduate Law students at South East European University in Tetovo and Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia. The participants were attending the following courses: Level 5, Legal English 1 and Legal English 2. Findings imply that adjective compounds are more morphologically productive compared to verb compounds. Correspondingly, verb compounds are less morphologically productive however they are identified as highly frequent compounds compared to adjective compounds in the analysed corpus.
Keywords: high frequency; morphological productivity; adjective compounds; verb compounds; Legal English; corpus.
Downloads
References
Analysis and Psycholinguistic Interpretation (Doctoral dissertation). Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.
Baayen, R. H. (1990a). Corpusgebaseerd Onderzoek naar Morfologische Produktiviteit.
Spektator, 19, 213–233.
Baayen, R. H. (1990b). De Graad van Produktiviteit van het Suffixing. Forum der Letteren,
31, 203–217.
Baayen, R. H. (1991). Quantitative Aspects of Morphological Productivity. In G. E. Booij & J. van Marle (Eds.), Yearbook of Morphology 1991 (pp. 109–149). Dordrecht:
Academic Publishers.
Baayen, R. H., & Lieber, R. (1991). Productivity and English Derivation: A Corpus Based
Study. Linguistics, 29, 801–843.
Baumann, J. F.,et al. (2002). Teaching morphemic and contextual analysis to fifth-grade
students. Reading Research Quarterly, 37(2), 150–176.
https://doi.org/10.1598/RRQ.37.2.3
Bradley, D. (1980). Lexical representation of derivational relation. In M. Aronoff & M. L.
Kean (Eds.), Juncture (pp. 37–55). Saratoga, CA: Anma Libri.
Brusnighan, S. M., & Folk, J. R. (2012). Combining contextual and morphemic cues Is
beneficial during incidental vocabulary acquisition: Semantic transparency in
novel compound word processing. Reading Research Quarterly, 47, 172–190.
https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.015
Brysbaert, M., & New, B. (2009). Moving beyond Kučera and Francis: A critical evaluation
of current word frequency norms and the introduction of a new and improved word frequency measure for American English. Behavior Research Methods,
Instruments & Computers, 41(4), 977–990. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.41.4.977
Cutler, A. (1980). Productivity in word formation. In J. Kreiman & A. E. Ojeda (Eds.),
Papers from the Sixteenth Regional Meeting, Chicago Linguistic Society (pp. 45–
51). Chicago: Chicago Linguistics Society.
Fernández-Domínguez, J. (2009). Productivity in word-formation: An approach to N+N
compounding. Bern: Peter Lang.
Hamzai, J. (2019). An Investigation of Morphological Productivity of Nominal and Verbal
Compounds in Legal Discourse. SEEU Review, 14(2), 51-
61.https://doi.org/10.2478/seeur- 2019-0018
Jackson, H., & Ze Amwela, E. (2005). Words, meaning and vocabulary: An introduction to
Modern English Lexicology. London: Continuum Press.
Jacobsen, B. (1978). Transformational-Generative Grammar. North-Holland, Amsterdam.
Kastovsky, D. (2009). Astronaut, astrology, astrophysics: About combining forms, classical
compounds and affixoids. In R. W. McConchie et al. (Eds.), Selected proceedings
of the 2008 Symposium on New Approaches in English Historical Lexis (HEL-
LEX 2) (pp. 1- 13).
Retrieved from: http://www.lingref.com/cpp/hellex/2008/paper2161.pdf
Levin, J. R.et al. (1988). Facilitating vocabulary inferring through root-word instruction.
Contemporary Educational Psychology, 13, 316-322.
Lukatela, G., et al. (1987). Lexical representation of regular and irregular inflected nouns.
Language and Cognitive Processes, 2(1), 1–17.
Manelis, L., & Tharp, D. A. (1977). The processing of affixed words. Memory & Cognition,
5(6), 690–695.
McCauley, J. (2006). Technical combining forms in the third edition of the OED: Word-
formation in a historical dictionary. In R. W. McConchie et al. (Eds.), Selected
proceedings of the 2005 Symposium on New Approaches in English Historical
Lexis(HEL-LEX).
Retrieved from http://www.lingref.com/cpp/hellex/2005/paper1350.pdf
Nagy, W. E., & Anderson, R. C. (1984). How Many Words Are There in Printed School
English? Reading Research Quarterly, 19(3), 304-330.
https://doi.org/10.2307/747823
Nagy, W., et al. (1989). Morphological Families in the Internal Lexicon. Reading Research
Quarterly, 24(3), 262-282. https://doi.org/10.2307/747770
Plag, Ingo. (2014). Phonological and phonetic variability in complex words: An uncharted
territory. Italian Journal of Linguistics, 26(2), 209–228.
Prćić, T. (2005). Prefixes vs Initial Combining Forms in English: A Lexicographic
Perspective. International Journal of Lexicography, 18, 313-334.
Prćić, T. (2007). Headhood of suffixes and final combining forms in English word
formation. Acta Linguistica Hungarica, 54, 381-392.
Prćić, T. (2008). Suffixes vs Final Combining Forms in English: A Lexicographic
Perspective. International Journal of Lexicography, 21(1), 1-22.
Taft, M., & Forster, K. I. (1975). Lexical storage and retrieval of prefixed words. Journal of
Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 14(6), 638–647.
Warren, B. (1990). The importance of combining forms. In W. Dressler, H. Luschützky, O.
Pfeiffer & J. Rennison (Ed.), Contemporary Morphology (pp. 111-132). Berlin,
New York: De Gruyter M.
