Cover not available

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. 332–344

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Iconicity and word-formation

An examination of Adj+ie/y nominalisations through a Bidirectional Conceptualisation Model

 | IPU New Zealand, Tertiary Institute
 | University of Alicante
Published online: 28 May 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/bjl.00057.tar
Abstract
This article aims to encourage a discussion of how evaluative morphemes conform to the principles of iconicity and Construction Grammar through the examination of English Adj+ie/y nominalisations (e.g. brownie, softie). Our analysis of the Adj+ie/y paradigm investigates conceptual processes that employ these evaluative morphological forms. We propose a Bidirectional Conceptualisation Model (BCM) to demonstrate a templatic correlation between iconic morphological components and evaluative connotations, by means of which the suffix -ie/y is employed to instantiate a specific iconic value of the [[x-]A ie/y]N construction. The BCM incorporates the Diminution: Pejoration ↔ Endearment scale, which accounts for the semantic duality of appreciative and depreciative values realised by the morphological concept of diminution. The results of the study support the idea that superficially different functions realised by one and the same morphological form are related through interaction of Idealised Cognitive Models.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Iconicity in word formation
  • 3.The Adj+ie/y units used in the study
  • 4.The bidirectional conceptualisation model
  • 5.Iconicity as expressed by the BCM
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
References (25)
References
Abelin, Åsa. 1999. Studies in Sound Symbolism. Göteborg: Göteborg University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Audring, Jenny, Geert Booij, and Ray Jackendoff. 2017. “Menscheln, Kibbelen, Sparkle. Verbal Diminutives between Grammar and Lexicon.” Linguistics in the Netherlands 341: 1–15. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Augustyn, Rafał, and Agata Gniecka. 2011. “Irony Behind Diminutives: A Cognitive Linguistic Analysis of Popular Technical Terms.” Lubelskie Materaly Neofilologiczne 351: 31–49.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bauer, Laurie, Rochelle Lieber, and Ingo Plag. 2015. The Oxford Reference Guide to English Morphology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Besedina, Natalia. 2012. “Evaluation through Morphology: A Cognitive Perspective.” Proceedings of CLA Meeting 11: 177–192.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Booij, Geert. 2010. Construction Morphology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2019. “The Role of Schemas in Construction Morphology.” Word Structure 121: 385–395. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brdar, Mario. 2015. “On Iconicity in Word-Formation: The Case of Embellished Clippings in English “Down Under” and Their Counterparts in Other Languages.” In Dimenzije Značenja, ed. by Branimir Belaj, 63–83. Zagreb: Zagrebačka Slavistička Škola.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan. 1985. “Diagrammatic Iconicity in Stem-Inflection Relations.” In Iconicity in Syntax, ed. by John Haiman, 11–47. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dingemanse, Mark, Damián E. Blasi, Gary Lupyan, Morten H. Christiansen, and Padraic Monaghan. 2015. “Arbitrariness, Iconicity, and Systematicity in Language.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 191: 603–615. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dressler, Wolfgang U., and Marianne Kilani-Schoch. 2016. “Natural Morphology.” In The Cambridge Handbook of Morphology, ed. by Andrew Hippisley, and Gregory T. Stump, 356–389. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fauconnier, Gilles, and Mark Turner. 2008. The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind’s Hidden Complexities. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haiman, John. 1985. Natural Syntax: Iconicity and Erosion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Höder, Steffen. 2019. “Phonological Schematicity in Multilingual Constructions: A Diasystematic Perspective on Lexical Form.” Word Structure 121: 334–352. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Körtvélyessy, Lívia. 2011. “A Cross-Linguistic Research into Phonetic Research.” Lexis: Journal in English Lexicology 61: 28–39. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koutsoukos, Nikos, Kristel Van Goethem, and Hendrik De Smet. 2018. “Asymmetries, Mismatches and Construction Grammar. An Introduction.” Constructions and Frames 10(2): 123–146. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
MWD11: Merriam-Webster Dictionary online, 11th edition, Merriam-Webster, Inc. [URL] [Accessed 03 July, 2020].
OED3: Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition, Oxford University Press. [URL] [Accessed 27 June, 2020].
Sánchez Fajardo, José A., and Elizaveta Tarasova. 2020. “Of brownie girls and Aussie families: A New Look at Morphosemantic Paradigmaticity in Adj+ie/y Nominalisations.” In Paradigmatic Relations in Derivational Morphology, ed. by Jesús Fernández-Domínguez, Alexandra Bagasheva, and Cristina Lara-Clares, 184–210. Amsterdam: Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Santibáñez-Sáenz, Francisco. 1999. “Conceptual Interaction and Spanish Diminutives.” Cuadernos de Investigation Filologica 251: 173–190. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schneider, Klaus P. 2003. Diminutives in English. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ungerer, Friedrich. 2007. “Word-Formation”. In The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, ed. by Dirk Geeraerts, and Hubert Cuyckens, 650–675. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Langendonck, Willy. 2007. “Iconicity.” In The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, ed. by Dirk Geeraerts, and Hubert Cuyckens, 394–418. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Waugh, Linda, and Madeleine Newfield. 1995. “Iconicity in the Lexicon and its Relevance to the Theory of Morphology.” In Syntactic Iconicity and Linguistic Freezes: The Human Dimension, ed. by Marge E. Landsberg, 189–222. Berlin/New York: Mouton De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, Anna. 1992. Semantics, Culture and Cognition: Universal Human Cognition in Culture Specific Configurations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue