| Popis: |
This research study aims to design and explore a morphosemantic taxonomy of converted deverbal nouns conveying the semantic trait [+human], particularly in English slang and colloquial lexis (e.g. a creep, a bang, a lie-about). For the purpose of analysis, data were first extracted from descriptive dictionaries in the form of a list of senses (N=163). Based on the prototype and construction morphology approaches, the words were modeled according to (i) their input semantics (Sem) and output semantics (SEM), and (ii) their prototypical and marginal patterns. This modeling demonstrates the existence of two types of evaluative recategorization: internal (or linguistic) and external (or non-linguistic). Also, on the basis of the semantic and syntactic frames of the lemmas listed in the dataset, three general categories are identified: agentive, patientive and causative. Agentive models are the most frequent in the data, where the evidence also suggests that the suffix -er and the zero morpheme (-∅) are in competition (e.g. creeper/creep). The data also demonstrate that most of the converted words (95% of the dataset) convey negative meaning, which is the result of a metonymic process whereby the trait [+human] is used in lieu of [+action]. On average, negative traits are not necessarily inherited from the verbal base (as in a cheat), but rather from how the action or the person performing this action is perceived by speakers (as with a bang). |
