Prefixes in noun word-formation models and semantics of derivatives Cover Image

Priedēkļi lietvārdu vārddarināšanas modeļos un atvasinājumu semantika
Prefixes in noun word-formation models and semantics of derivatives

Author(s): Daiga Deksne
Subject(s): Morphology, Semantics, Baltic Languages
Published by: Latvijas Universitātes Akadēmiskais apgāds
Keywords: noun; word-formation; prefix; prefixation;

Summary/Abstract: For deriving nouns in Latvian, the prefixation is used much less frequently than the suffixation. Most nouns containing a prefix are derived from prefixed verbs. However, there are also prefixed nouns derived from other nouns. This study examines productive noun word-formation models that employ prefixation. The study analyses 238 nouns from “The Balanced Corpus of Modern Latvian LVK2018”, their word-formation models, and noun semantics. Any prefix may impart the noun a spatial meaning associated with the direction of the adverb corresponding to the prefix. Some prefixes can give a noun temporal or quantitative meaning. However, compared to prefixed verbs, the range of noun meanings is limited. The derivation models with prefixes pa- ‘under’ and aiz- ‘behind’ are more productive. Among the derivatives considered, approximately 24% of nouns in the corpus have only one example of usage. The corpus also contains some common lexicalized prefixed nouns, such as pasaule ‘the world’.

  • Issue Year: 2024
  • Issue No: 15
  • Page Range: 42-54
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: Latvian
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