Jul 2026· Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik / Agenda: Advancing Anglophone Studies· Vol 51· 0 citations
Abstract
Conversion is a fertile resource of word-formation in English. Its degree of productivity is often reflected in the high incidence of converted lexemes in language resources, for instance dictionaries and corpora. With the main aim of surveying the alleged relationship between morphological productivity and frequency, this study examines English verbs derived by denominal conversion between 1990 and 2019. The analysis of a dataset compiled from the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) reveals a concentration of converted verbs within the lowest frequency bands. The scarcity of converted verbs in mid-to-high frequency bands suggests that, while morphologically viable, they rarely achieve broad lexical entrenchment. This underscores the often ephemeral nature of the output of highly productive word-formation processes, with many formations remaining marginal or specialized in use, contingent upon their semantic categorization. It is noteworthy that, while the OED documents a significant number of converted verbs, the COCA data indicates that many of these remain peripheral in discourse. The prominence of converted verbs in the OED’s lowest bands suggests their recognition without widespread usage, consistent with prior observations that conversion frequently yields nonce formations and contextdependent lexical items. The semantic distribution of converted verbs further elucidates their productivity and frequency patterns. Instrumental verbs dominate, reflecting technological influence, while performative verbs also show remarkable representation. Overall, the findings confirm that denominal conversion is a productive but predominantly low-frequency process, shaped by morphosyntactic and semantic constraints.
English compound verbs are said to result predominantly from a morphological operation of conversion or desuffixation or, more rarely and ‘directly’, from an operation of compounding. In order to confirm the existence of ‘direct’ compound verbs in contemporary English and assess their relative weight among all compound verbs, a sample set of 250 units was obtained by automatically extracting recent verbal units containing a hyphen from the Oxford English Dictionary. Their dates of first attestation were then compared with those of similar nominal units, and those verbal units that were not clearly preceded by nominal occurrences were considered likely ‘direct’ compounds. They appear to constitute a sizable minority of the sample (almost one-fifth of all units). In a second step, in order to gain insight into the variety and quantitative distribution of the semantic relations attested in the sample, the internal semantic relation of each unit was established, applying, where possible, Pepper’s (2023) list of relations originally developed for binominal units. This showed that the verbal nature of the compounds leads to the presence of two additional, specific relations, MANNER and ATTRIBUTION, and that the morphological origin of the compound verb has an influence on the dominant categories of internal relations.
Pierre J. L. Arnaud, Vincent Renner· Arbeiten aus Anglistik und A...· 0 citations
The article is devoted to a comprehensive lexical analysis of M. Simonyan’s English-Armenian dictionary, “Small Dictionary from the English Language, Translated into the Armenian Dialect” (Madras, 1803). Using the example of the first English-Armenian dictionary, the study analyzes the qualitative and structural features of the target language—Armenian. Following a brief presentation of the historical context, the primary focus shifts to the manifestations of linguistic variability, orthographic irregularities, and thematic groups present in the dictionary. The rich dialectal layer of the dictionary and the use of vernacular synonyms undergo special examination. Through a comparative analysis with the Old and New Haigazian dictionaries, M. Simonyan’s terminological and neological efforts (morphological, derivational, and semantic coinages, particularly in the realm of rhetorical terms) are highlighted. The unique value of this work during the transitional phase of Armenian lexicography is demonstrated.
Վանուհի Բաղրամյան· Language and Linguistics· 0 citations
This study determines the status of English-origin nouns in otherwise Vietnamese discourse among bilingual speakers in Australia. It examines whether these nouns function as fully integrated loanwords, nonce borrowings, or instances of code-switching.
Taking a comparative variationist approach, this study compares patterns of syntactic integration across three points of comparison: Vietnamese nouns (VN), attested English-origin loanwords (LW) and English-origin single nouns (EN1) and multi-word constructions (EN2).
The study is based on a quantitative analysis of natural, spontaneous speech produced by nine bilingual speakers (five female, four male). The analysis compares patterns of post-nominal modification and quantifier and classifier usage across the points of comparison to disambiguate the status of English-origin nouns in Vietnamese discourse.
Findings reveal overall low levels of syntactic integration for EN1, suggesting that most of these items reflect nonce borrowing or code-switching rather than fully conventionalised forms. EN1 shows stronger integration into Vietnamese grammar, particularly in quantified contexts where classifier usage aligns with VN norms and in post-nominal possessives. EN2, however, exhibits minimal adaptation, retaining more English-like structures and showing no transparent patterns of code-switching, suggesting intermediary mixing strategies that blur the boundaries between borrowing and code-switching.
These findings contribute to language mixing theory by providing empirical evidence on the syntactic behaviour of English-origin nouns in otherwise Vietnamese discourse. The study also holds practical implications for heritage language maintenance by providing insights into how bilinguals manage grammar and vocabulary dynamically in multilingual settings.
This research provides a nuanced variationist analysis of English-origin nouns in Vietnamese discourse. It contributes to the study of mixing strategies between English and Vietnamese, an understudied language pair. Methodologically, this study adds to the growing body of studies that use quantitative and comparative methodology for identifying linguistic patterns.
Hoa Do, James A. Walker· International Journal of Bil...· 0 citations
Linguistic typology seeks to describe the structural diversity of the world's languages and to explain the recurrent patterns, or universals, that constrain this diversity. A central but often under-examined concept within this enterprise is metacoding: the principled allocation of formal marking resources, such as case, agreement, and word order, across grammatical relations and semantic or pragmatic categories according to markedness, economy, and iconic motivation. This review synthesises recent typological scholarship on metacoding and its bearing on syntactic structure across languages, drawing on comparative concepts, differential argument marking, alignment typology, morphological complexity trade-offs, and the growing role of large-scale computational databases in typological inference. The review traces how metacoding principles account for asymmetries in the marking of subjects and objects, for the distribution of ergative and accusative alignment, and for the coevolution of nominal and verbal grammatical marking. It further considers how phylogenetic and areal methods have reshaped debates about whether word-order correlations reflect cognitive universals or lineage-specific historical accidents, and how the loss of linguistic diversity through language endangerment threatens the empirical base on which such debates depend. Methodological issues concerning sampling, representativeness, and the comparability of descriptive categories across languages receive particular attention, since these issues bear directly on the reliability of typological generalisations. The review concludes that metacoding offers a unifying, functionally motivated account of why languages allocate overt marking unevenly across categories, while cautioning that the evidential basis for many typological universals remains uneven across language families and geographical regions. Future research directions, together with the principal limitations of the current evidence base, are outlined.
Sun Jiaze, Mulyadi, Khairina et al.· Asian Research Journal of Ar...· 0 citations
This study examines the four major word classes (viz. noun, verb, adjective and adverb) in Lohorung, a Kirat Rai (Tibeto-Burman) language of north-eastern Nepal, based on their semantic, syntactic, and morphological properties, based on Givón’s formal and functional approach. Data were collected through elicitation with native speakers and textual analyses and were analysed with reference to the author’s native-speaker intuition. The findings indicate that Lohorung exhibits prototypical nouns with their multiple features and non-prototypical nouns as well. Morphologically, nouns are marked by the specific affixes, <-ʈsi> encodes dual and <-i> encodes plural. Lohorung employs three types of classifiers, namely <-tsi> <-kɔ>, and <-pɑŋ/pɑ>. Verbs are clause-final and serve as main predicates, typical of Tibeto-Burman languages. Lohorung has three numbers and persons systems with clusivity. Manner adverbials may take , and some adverbs modify adjectives. This study concludes that the analysis of the four major word classes enhances the grammatical description of the Lohorung language and contributes to functional-typological research on lexical classification.
Diwas Rai· Journal of Indigenous Knowle...· 0 citations
The paper argues that developments and changes in relative-clause formation in Ukrainian since the end of the 18th c. are due to lexical variation between a relative particle, typically ščo ‘that’, with or without a resumptive pronoun, and the relative pronouns jakyj and kotryj ‘which’. This repertory of relativisers is the result of previous syntactic changes, without any further ones in the modern period. The paper provides evidence that there are no grammaticalised constraints attached to them in modern Standard Ukrainian or the dialects. Due to its lexical nature, relativiser selection is subject to substantial diatopic, diachronic and diaphasic variability, as well as to language contact and linguistic standardisation. The paper shows, with reference to contemporary Standard Ukrainian corpus data, that selection preferences may still correlate with extralinguistic and linguistic factors, such as jakyj as the standardised choice and ščo almost exclusively in subject position.
Jan Fellerer· Revue des études slaves· 0 citations