Cover not available

In:Category Change from a Constructional Perspective
Edited by Kristel Van Goethem, Muriel Norde, Evie Coussé and Gudrun Vanderbauwhede
[Constructional Approaches to Language 20] 2018
► pp. 229–262

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

Chapter 9
Evaluative morphology in German, Dutch and Swedish

Constructional Networks and the Loci of Change

Published online: 22 March 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.20.09bat
Abstract
The separation or ‘debonding’ of prefixoids in informal language use in Germanic and the question whether spelling reflects re-categorization of such compound members as adjectives have recently been attracting increased attention among linguists. This contribution focuses on category changes involving lexical items with an evaluative function, both bound (prefixoids, loan prefixes) and unbound (bare nouns), that give rise to defective adjectives in German, Dutch and Swedish. This occurs via two loci of change: the non-head position in nominal and adjectival compounds and the predicative position in sentence constructions. The diverse items serving as ‘evaluatives’ are unified by one abstract schema for ‘evaluative compounds’ across these languages which is paradigmatically related to other, free uses of such items.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical preliminaries
    • 2.1Sources of adjectival evaluatives
    • 2.2Evaluative prefixoids
    • 2.3Affixoids in construction morphology
    • 2.4Abstract subschemata for evaluative compounds
  • 3.Evaluatives in German, Dutch and Swedish
    • 3.1Denominal evaluatives and nouns
      • 3.1.1Distributional properties
      • 3.1.2Compound vs. noun phrase: Evidence from spelling
      • 3.1.3Predicative position
      • 3.1.4Inflection
      • 3.1.5Adverbial use
    • 3.2Intensification of adjectives and adverbs
    • 3.3Evaluative ‘loan prefixes’
  • 4.Constructional networks
    • 4.1Paradigmatic relationships
    • 4.2Source constructions and formal variation
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (49)
References
Altmann, H. (2011). Prüfungswissen Wortbildung. Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Androutsopoulos, J. K. (1998). Deutsche Jugendsprache: Untersuchungen zu ihren Strukturen und Funktionen. Frankfurt a. M.: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Battefeld, M., Leuschner, T., & Rawoens, G. (2016). Konstruktionsmorphologie – echt top? Neue Perspektiven auf den kategorialen Status einer entlehnten Wortbildungseinheit. In E. Hentschel (Ed.), Wortbildung im Deutschen: Aktuelle Perspektiven. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Berman, J. (2009). The predicative as a source of grammatical variation. In A. Dufter, J. Fleischer, G. Seiler (Eds.), Describing and modeling variation in grammar (pp. 99–116). Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Booij, G. (2010). Construction Morphology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Booij, G., & Hüning, M. (2014). Affixoids and constructional idioms. In R. Boogaart, T. Colleman, & G. Rutten (Eds.), Extending the Scope of Construction Grammar (pp. 77–106). Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Downing, P. (1977). On the creation and use of English compound nouns. Language, 53, 810–842. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Elsen, H. (2009). Affixoide: Nur was benannt wird, kann auch verstanden werden. Deutsche Sprache, 37, 316–333.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fleischer, W., & Barz, I. (2012). Wortbildung der deutschen Gegenwartssprache (4th ed.). Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fletcher, W. H. (1980). ‘BLOOD-HOT’, ‘STONE-GOOD’: A preliminary report on adjective-specific intensifiers in Dutch. Leuvense Bijdragen, 69, 445–472.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gaeta, L. (2014). On decategorization and its relevance in German. In R. Simone, & F. Masini (Eds.), Word classes: Nature, typology and representations (pp. 227–242). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grzega, J. (2004). Ein Spítzenpolitiker ist nicht immer ein Spítzen-Polítiker. Muttersprache, 4, 321–332.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Habermann, M. (2015). Grammaticalization in German word-formation. In P. O. Müller, I. Ohnheiser, S. Olsen, & F. Rainer (Eds.), Word-Formation: An International Handbook of the Languages of Europe (HSK 40.3). Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haeseryn, W., Romijn, K., Geerts, G., de Rooij, J., & van den Toorn, M. (1997). Algemene Nederlandse Spraakkunst. Groningen/Deurne: Nijhoff, Plantyn.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hentschel, E. (1998). Die Emphase des Schreckens: Furchtbar nett und schrecklich freundlich . In T. Harden (Ed.), Particulae Particularum: Fest zum 60. Geburtstag von Harald Weydt (pp. 119–132). Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hoeksema, J. (2012). Elative compounds in Dutch: Properties and developments. In G. Oebel (Ed.), Intensivierungskonzepte bei Adjektiven und Adverben im Sprachenvergleich (pp. 97–142). Hamburg: Dr. Kovač.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hüning, M., & Booij, G. (2014). From compounding to derivation: The emergence of derivational affixes through ‘constructionalization’. Folia Linguistica, 48(2), 579–604. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klara, L. (2009). Ist steinreich auch steinreich? Adjektivische Steigerungskomposita des Gegenwartsdeutschen und ihre Akzentuierung (Doctorial dissertation). LMU München: Fakultät für Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaften.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2012). Steinreich ist saucool: Adjektivische Steigerungsbildungen des Gegenwartsdeutschen. In G. Oebel (Ed.), Intensivierungskonzepte bei Adjektiven und Adverben im Sprachvergleich (pp. 143–170). Hamburg: Dr. Kovač.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kunkel-Razum, K., Münzberg, F. et al. (Eds.). (2009). Duden. Die Grammatik. (7th, fully revised ed.). Mannheim/Leipzig/Wien/Zürich: Dudenverlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lauwers, P. (2014). Between adjective and noun: Category/function mismatch, constructional overrides and coercion. In R. Simone, & F. Masini (Eds.), Word classes: Nature, typology and representations (pp. 203–226). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leuschner, T. (2010). Ausnahmepianist fettgeschreckt – inbleich! Deutsche, niederländische und schwedische Präfixoide im Spannungsfeld von Genealogie, Kreativität und Norm. In A. Dammel, S. Kürschner, & D. Nübling (Eds.), Kontrastive Germanistische Linguistik (pp. 863–892). Hildesheim/Zürich/New York: Olms.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lundbladh, C. -E. (2002). Prefixlika förleder. In Det Svenska ordförrådets utveckling 1800–2000. Instiutionen för svenska språket, Göteborgs universitet [[URL]].
Meibauer, J. (2013). Expressive compounds in German. Word Structure, 6, 21–42. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Motsch, W. (1996). Affixoide: Sammelbezeichnung für Wortbildungsphänomene oder linguistische Kategorie? Deutsch als Fremdsprache, 33, 160–168.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Norde, M. (2009). Degrammaticalization. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2015). Emancipatie van affixen en affixoïden: Degrammaticalisatie of lexicalisatie? Nederlandse Taalkunde, 20(1), 109–148. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pittner, K., & Berman, J. (2006). video ist echt schrott aber single ist hammer. Jugendsprachliche Nomen-Adjektiv-Konversion in der Prädikativposition. Deutsche Sprache, 3, 233–250.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruf, B. (1996). Augmentativbildungen mit Lehnpräfixen: Eine Untersuchung zur Wortbildung der deutschen Gegenwartssprache. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag C. Winter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schäfer, R. (2015). Processing and querying large web corpora with the COW14 architecture. In Proceedings of Challenges in the Management of Large Corpora (CMLC-3). Lancaster.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schäfer, R., & Bildhauer, F. (2012). Building large corpora from the web using a new efficient tool chain. In N. Calzolari, K. Choukri, T. Declerck et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2010) (pp. 486–493). Valletta, Malta: European language resources distribution agency.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scherer, C. (2012). Vom Reisezentrum zum Reise Zentrum: Variation in der Schreibung von N+N-Komposita. In L. Gaeta, & B. Schlücker (Eds.), Das Deutsche als kompositionsfreudige Sprache: Strukturelle Eigenschaften und systembezogene Aspekte (pp. 57–81). Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schlücker, B. (2014). Grammatik im Lexikon: Adjektiv-Nomen-Verbindungen im Deutschen und Niederländischen. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schmidt, G. D. (1990). Super- und top-: Ein Vergleich von zwei im Deutschen heute produktiven Lehnpräfixen. Muttersprache, 100, 204–210.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sigurd, B. (1983). Om jätte-, kalas- och andra förstärkningsprefix. Språkvård, 2, 7–16.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stevens, C. M. (2005). Revisiting the affixoid debate: On the grammaticalization of the word. In T. Leuschner, T. Mortelmans, & S. De Groodt (Eds.), Grammatikalisierung im Deutschen (pp. 71–83). Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Teleman, U., Hellberg, S., & Andersson, E. (1999). Svenska Akademiens Grammatik. (2nd Volume). Stockholm: Svenska Akademien.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thorell, O. (1981). Svensk ordbildningslära. Stockholm: Esselte.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Traugott, E. C., & Trousdale, G. (2013). Constructionalization and constructional changes. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trousdale, G. (2013). Multiple inheritance and constructional change. Studies in Language, 37(3), 491–514. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trousdale, G., & Norde, M. (2013). Degrammaticalization and constructionalization: Two case studies. Language Sciences, 36, 32–46. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van de Velde, F., De Smet, H., & Ghesquière, L. (2013). On multiple source constructions in language change. Studies in Language, 37(3), 473–489. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Goethem, K. (2008). Oud-leerling versus ancien élève: A comparative study of adjectives grammaticalizing into prefixes in Dutch and French. Morphology, 18, 27–49. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2014). Reuze bedankt, het was echt top! Een vergelijkend onderzoek naar ‘loskoppeling’ van samenstellingscomponenten. Internationale Neerlandistiek, 52(1), 27–46. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Goethem, K., & Hiligsmann, P. (2014). When two paths converge: Debonding and clipping of Dutch reuze . Journal of Germanic Linguistics, 26(1), 31–64. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Goethem, K., & Hüning, M. (2015). From noun to evaluative adjective: Conversion or debonding? Dutch top and its equivalents in German. Journal of Germanic Linguistics, 27(4), 365–408. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (7)

Cited by seven other publications

Lightfoot, Douglas
2025. Germanic affixoids in Jacob Grimm. Historiographia Linguistica DOI logo
Petersen, Esben Nedenskov
2025. History of Use Cannot Explain the Derogatory Impact of Slurs: The Case of Multimorphemic Slurs in Danish. Topoi DOI logo
Rosenberg, Maria & Linda Sandström
2025. Exploring Ways to Intensify Verbs in Swedish. European Journal of Scandinavian Studies 55:1 ► pp. 208 ff. DOI logo
Wedig, Helena, Carola Strobl, Jim J. J. Ureel, Tanja Mortelmans & Larissa Weber
2025. The influence of L1 Dutch on connective use in L2 German academic writing. International Journal of Learner Corpus Research DOI logo
Van Goethem, Kristel & Muriel Norde
2020. Extravagant “fake” morphemes in Dutch. Morphological productivity, semantic profiles and categorical flexibility. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory 16:3 ► pp. 425 ff. DOI logo
Hartmann, Stefan
2019. Compound worlds and metaphor landscapes: Affixoids, allostructions, and higher-order generalizations. Word Structure 12:3 ► pp. 297 ff. DOI logo
Norde, Muriel & Kristel Van Goethem
2018. Debonding and Clipping of Prefixoids in Germanic: Constructionalization or Constructional Change?. In The Construction of Words [Studies in Morphology, 4], ► pp. 475 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 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