Derived change-of-state verbs in French: a case of semantic equivalence between prefixes and suffixes
Derived change-of-state verbs in French: a case of semantic equivalence between prefixes and suffixes

Summary/Abstract: The paper reports on work carried out within Corbin's associative morphological model which postulates that form and meaning are deducible from one another. It is assumed that in French there is a neat semantic distribution between prefixes and suffixes because each affix is specified by its semantic instructional identity. If this is the case, then the affixes a-, en-, é- and -is(er), -ifi(er) seem to constitute exceptions and represent semantic equivalence because each of them constructs deadjectival change of state verbs. In order to explain this apparent discrepancy, it is proposed here that the notion of 'paradigm of morphological processes' is to be abandoned when characterizing the semantic scope of a rule and we should adopt the principle that one and only one affix corresponds to one and only one word formation rule.

• Details
• Contents