The topic of combining forms is not neglected in main morphological works, but it is commonly relegated to the category of neoclassical combining forms. Most scholars have included discussion on neoclassical combining forms or on the formations resulting from them, i.e. neoclassical compounds, in their description of English word-formation. However, more recent categories of combining forms have been either excluded from morphological accounts or merged with the blending process. The demarcation line between combining forms and other bound morphemes, such as splinters, affixoids, or even affixes, is not clear-cut, and morphologists as well as lexicographers still tend to label the same bound morphemes using different terms or, conversely, use the same term for actually diverse categories of morphological elements.
This book is an attempt to clarify what counts as a combining form, what distinguishes it from other word-formation processes, and what may be a potential form, having the characteristics of some existing combining forms but still not being a recognised one. It shows that the notion of combining form covers a wide spectrum of processes, from regular composition to abbreviation, from blending to analogy, schema, and paradigm. Combining forms may find their birth in blends, but the availability of novel splinters and their profitability in the coinage of new words can confer productivity on the combining form to the point of being considered an affix. Hence, it is difficult, and even incorrect, to classify combining forms as either composition or derivation, as for their heterogeneity and borderline nature they occupy an indeterminate area of morphology which is called ‘transitional’.
This book is only partially on neology, as it focuses on novel combinations as well as on the models triggering them. The models show the regularity and the targets confirm the productivity, while what happens in-between remains under-explored. This book intends to fill this gap in morphological research by discussing and accommodating different categories of combining forms under the same umbrella term of ‘transitional morphology’.
I am very thankful to pioneers in this field, such as Adrienne Lehrer and Beatrice Warren, whose groundbreaking papers on modern English combining forms attracted my attention as a student and are still inspiring my research.
