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Article published In: The Wealth and Breadth of Construction-Based Research:
Edited by Timothy Colleman, Frank Brisard, Astrid De Wit, Renata Enghels, Nikos Koutsoukos, Tanja Mortelmans and María Sol Sansiñena
[Belgian Journal of Linguistics 34] 2020
► pp. 199–212

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Pleonastic complex words as functional amalgams

 | F.R.S.-FNRS | UCLouvain
 | University of Colorado Boulder
Published online: 28 May 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/bjl.00046.kou
Abstract
Syntactic amalgams are innovative phrasal constructions that combine otherwise incompatible subparts of other constructions (Lambrecht, Knud. 1988. “Presentational Cleft Constructions in Spoken French.” In Clause Combining in Grammar and Discourse, ed. by John Haiman, and Sandra A. Thompson, 135–179. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Brenier, Jason M., and Laura A. Michaelis. 2005. “Optimization Via Syntactic Amalgam: Syntax-Prosody Mismatch and Copula Doubling.” Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory 1(1): 45–88. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). We describe pleonastic formations like flavorize in English and ψηλαφ-ίζ(ω) [psilafízo] ‘palpate’ in Modern Greek as functional amalgams at the word level. We examine these formations through the lens of (function-oriented) Sign-Based Construction Grammar (Sag, Ivan. 2012. “Sign-Based Construction Grammar: An Informal Synopsis.” In Sign-Based Construction Grammar, ed. by Hans C. Boas, and Ivan A. Sag, 39–170. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), arguing that once we see derivational morphemes as signs, and sign combination as construction-driven rather than head-driven, we can describe such words as coercive combinations that serve a variety of semiotic functions.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.IME in English and Modern Greek
  • 3.Headedness in morphology
  • 4.A SBCG approach to derivational suffixes
  • 5.Functional analysis of IME formations
    • 5.1Word-level amalgams
    • 5.2IME as construction-based selection
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (35)
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Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Michaelis, Laura A.
2024. Staying terminologically rigid, conceptually open and socially cohesive. Constructions and Frames 16:2 ► pp. 278 ff. DOI logo
Michaelis, Laura A.
2025. Syntactic Innovation and Functional Amalgams. In The Cambridge Handbook of Construction Grammar, ► pp. 290 ff. DOI logo

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