Selection is a head property
Selection is a head property

Summary/Abstract: In the present paper we deal with the semantics of prefixation. We will show that prefixes acquire their semantic values in accordance with the meaning of the words which they are attached to. Hence, the choice of a prefix is semantically determined by the base constituent which is generally the head of the complex word. (We assume that the head of a derived word is the constituent passing on categorial and syntactico-semantic information to the derived word.) Whilst we are not ready to dispense with lexical categories as invoked by many scholars — see, among others, Croft (2001); Plag (2004); Di Sciullo (2005) and supporters of Distributed Morphology —, we are sympathetic with recent views grounding word formation on the role of semantics more heavily than in the past.

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