Derivational paradigms and competition in English: a diachronic study on competing causative verbs and their derivatives
Abstract
Although there is no clear definition of competition in morphology, it is often described as a situation where two or more forms express the same semantic category (if no restrictions apply). Viewing word-formation as a complex network where elements are interrelated, this paper attempts to describe to which extent a description of derivation in terms of paradigms can help understand morphological competition.
This paradigm-competition interaction is expected to be bidirectional, such that the paradigms of two competitors serve as extra evidence for defining competition. At the same time, paradigm theory can benefit from the identification of competing patterns as it may help to specify whether two forms compete for the same semantic niche or not.
Based on a sample of 45 Present-Day English verbal clusters where forms in -ize and zero-derivation compete (or did compete) for the expression of the semantic category causative, this paper elaborates on previous research on diachronic competition in two ways. Methodologically, this paper complements the method used in previous research by constructing the subparadigms for the competing verbs while considering both available and unavailable derivatives and using lexicographic and corpus data.
At the same time, this approach allows us to offer a more complete description of competition by exploring to what extent the subparadigms of the forms in competition may be used to refine our understanding of the competition and how this can be exploited methodologically.