| Affixoid is a continuum between free morpheme and typical affix,which is a special language phenomenon.Features of both free morpheme and typical affix can be found at affixoid.As for affix,there are two kinds of affix,which are prefixoid and suffixoid.They can be attached to base words to form new ones whose part of speech would not be altered.The language phenomenon of affixoid has aroused the interest of scholars at home and abroad.On the basis of previously relevant researches,this paper selects an affixoid“counter-”as the target.Known from dictionaries and COCA,the target affixoid is often used as a prefixoid.Moreover,Prototype Theory indicates that“counter-”lies between free words and typical affixes,and there is no targeted research on this prefixoid.The development of“counter”from a free morpheme to an affix impels the coination of new“counter-”words,during which meanings and usage distribution alter.Most of former studies pay attention to semantic bleaching of affixoids,thus other factors like the change and evolvement of constructional meanings,and generative mechanisms that promote construction formation are ignored.Booij?2010? proposed Construction Morphology,which is a theory that can account for affixoids.So this paper employs Construction Morphology and Usage-based Theory to study constructional meanings,morphological features and generative mechanisms of the target prefixoid.Both quantitative and qualitative methods are adopted in this paper,and three questions are to be answered:1)During the process of construction development,is there any form and meaning change of target prefixoid?If yes,what is it?2)What morphological features do the constructions formed from target prefixoid have?3)What are the generative mechanisms?To give answers to the above three questions,the author combines Construction Morphology with Usage-based Theory.Data collection is in virtue of COCA?Corpus of Contemporary American English?and COHA?Corpus of Historical American English?,while data processing is by EXCEL.In addition,Online Etymology Dictionary and Collins COBULID Advanced Learner's English-Chinese Dictionary are utilized here for making clear the origination and constructional meaning of target prefixoid.Results are as follows:Firstly,form of the target prefixoid changes during its constructional formation,but meanings remain the same.Contemporary“counter”is the synthesis of several words.When it is used as a noun,“contouer”and“comptoir”in old French and“compuratorium”in Medieval Latin are its predecessors.When it is used as a verb,terms“acountren”and“encountren”in boxing at the end of 14 century are its origin.When it is an adverb,it comes from“counter”in Anglo-Saxon language and“contre”in old French,which are both from“contra”in Latin.And the usage as an adjective was firstly found in the 1690s,meaning confrontational.However,constructions formed from“counter-”deliver three meanings.1)the opposite direction,and the schema is[[counter-]V/A[X]]V/A??[the opposite direction of SEM]V/A;2)to neutralize some effect or force,and the schema is[[counter-]V/N[X]]V/N??[to neutralize the effect of SEM]V/N;3)to go against some activities or ideas,and the schema is[[counter-]V/N[X]]V/N??[to disagree with SEM and to take action that is against SEM]V/N.Moreover,further investigation shows that the proportion of the above three constructional meanings are 7%,10% and 83%.Besides,this paper analyzes the part of speech of“counter-”words.Among them,65% are nouns;19% are verbs;14%are adjectives,and the least is adverbs,only 2%.Frequency of“counter-”words also changes.Specifically speaking,type frequency rise from 6 in 1810 to 39 to 1990,while token frequency rise from 73 to 3227.Morphological features are the second main points in this paper,which consists of productivity and usage distribution.According to the formula proposed by Baayen:P=n1aff/Naff,the productivity of target prefixoid is 0.0107.Several other affixoids whose productivity have been studied before are selected here to judge whether 0.0107 is high or low,and the rank is:-wise>-free>-proof>counter-.This indicates that“counter-”has a relatively low productivity.Then,as for usage distribution in COCA,academic fields appear the most,while spoken fields the least.More specifically,discourses about history takes up the most in academies,geography and social science go the next,and medical discourses takes up the least.Another conclusion is that usage distribution among 1990-1994 and 2010-2014 differs subtly.Fiction is the register ranking the first in the first five years,while academy ranks the first in the last five years.However,they are both formal and literal.Except for difference,commonality is that spoken ranks the lowest in these two time periods.Finally,this paper discusses generative mechanisms of the target prefixoid,including the Economy Principle and Grammaticalization.Economy Principle creates new words and expressions on the basis of old ones to meet the needs of communication.While Grammaticalization is an unescapable process when a free morpheme turns into a typical affix,and in this process free morphemes coexist with typical affixes. |
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