Semantic coindexation: evidence from Portuguese derivation and compounding Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • Celga, Universidade de Coimbra
  • This paper tries to shed light on the questions: How do words formed by word formation get their meaning? What are the factors involved and what is the balance between them? According to Jackendoff’s Parallel Architecture (2002), a word is an interface between Phonology, Syntax and Semantics, and formation of word meaning is independent of syntax. The PA permits us to solve some problems that come to light by adopting other perspectives (syntactically guided: Rappaport Hovav & Levin 1992; Beard 1995; Lieber 2004; or cognitively guided: Barker 1998; Ryder 1999; Panther & Thornburg 2002). We propose to analyse Portuguese word formation of deverbal nouns and adjectives and of compounds, in order to test if these two genolexical mechanisms behave similarly respecting the semantic structure of their constituents. Empirical data show that word formation mechanisms align semantic structuring independently of syntactic structuring. Only semantic features are responsible for the meaning of the coined word.

publication date

  • January 1, 2010