Hostname: page-component-75d7c8f48-28hfj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-03-13T18:09:34.040Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Contextuals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

Mark Aronoff*
Affiliation:
SUNY Stony Brook

Abstract

The range of interpretations of new zero-derived denominal verbs in English is accounted for here without resorting to the novel theoretical devices proposed by Clark & Clark 1979. In addition, a method of treating the semantics of morphologically derived words is exemplified, wherein a sparse semantics combines with general principles of conversation to provide interpretations for such words in context.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 56 , Issue 4 , December 1980 , pp. 744 - 758
Copyright
Copyright © 1980 by Linguistic Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Aronoff, Mark. 1976. Word formation in generative grammar. (Linguistic Inquiry monograph 1.) Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Brekle, Herbert. 1970. Generative Satzsemantik und transformationelle Syntax im System der englischen Nominalkomposition. Munich: Fink.Google Scholar
Clark, Eve, and Clark, Herbert. 1979. When nouns surface as verbs. Lg. 55. 767811.Google Scholar
Downing, Pamela. 1977. On the creation and use of English compound nouns. Lg. 53. 810–42.Google Scholar
Espy, Willard R. 1978. O thou improper, thou uncommon noun: An etymology of words that once were names. New York: Potter.Google Scholar
Grice, H. P. 1975. Logic and conversation. Syntax and semantics III: Speech acts, ed. by Cole, Peter & Morgan, J. L., 4158. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Jackendoff, Ray. 1975. Morphological and semantic regularities in the lexicon. Lg. 51. 639–71.Google Scholar
Kastovsky, Dieter. 1977. Word-formation, or: At the crossroads of morphology, syntax, semantics, and the lexicon. Folia Linguistica 10. 133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, Jerrold J. 1964. Semantic theory and the meaning of ‘good’. Journal of Philosophy 61. 739–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, George. 1972. Hedges: A study of meaning criteria and the logic of fuzzy concepts. CLS 8. 183228.Google Scholar
McCawley, James. 1968. Lexical insertion in a grammar without deep structure. CLS 4. 7180.Google Scholar
Marchand, Hans. 1969. The categories and types of present-day English word-formation. 2nd ed. München: Beck.Google Scholar