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Contribution to Book
Borrowed derivational morphology in Late Middle English: A study of the records of the London Grocers and Goldsmiths
Studies in the History of the English Language IV: Empirical and Analytical Advances in the Study of English Language Change (2008)
Abstract
This study compares the use of native nominal affixes (-ness, -ship, -hood) with borrowed, potential affixes (-cion, -ance, -ity, -age, -ment) throughout the English portions of the multilingual (French, Latin, English) records of the London Goldsmiths and Grocers of the early fifteenth century. Attempting to locate evidence of the naturalization of these forms--the process by which these endings become derivational morphemes in the general English lexicon--the paper develops the notion of local productivity. This measure combines both quantitative and qualitative data to show that, even in smaller corpora, historical linguists can find evidence of the morphological status of different potential affixes for communities within particular historical moments.
Keywords
  • medieval guilds,
  • derivational morphology,
  • local productivity,
  • sociolinguistics,
  • manuscripts,
  • English linguistics,
  • suffixes,
  • nominalization,
  • borrowings,
  • Middle English,
  • London Grocers,
  • London Goldsmiths
Publication Date
2008
Editor
Susan M. Fitzmaurice, Donka Minkova
Publisher
De Gruyter
Series
Topics in English Linguistics [TiEL]
ISBN
9783110211801
Citation Information
"Borrowed derivational morphology in Late Middle English: A study of the records of the London Grocers and Goldsmiths" Studies in the History of the English Language IV: Empirical and Analytical Advances in the Study of English Language Change Vol. 61 (2008)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/chris_c_palmer/4/