Fugu me! Roots and denominal verb productivity: new data

MANGIALAVORI RASIA, MARÍA EUGENIA; MÚGICA, NORA

Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics

De Gruyter Mouton

Año: 2022

2199-3386

-ear is a highly productive morpheme in denominal verb formation in Spanish. The unparalleled productivity and range of verb classes produced invites to revisit fundamental questions on verb formation and interpretation: e.g., which domain (lexical/syntactic/semantic) primarily drives (and constrains) denominal verb use and interpretation, what the possible verb types (at least in modern Spanish) are, or whether a canonical use constraint can correctly predict and capture the role of the root in verb meaning, as assumed in some mainstream accounts.Based on analytical and (preliminary) experimental data, we consider syntactic and semantic (aspectual) behavior of denominal verbs, including both traditional and novel verbs with -ear. We observe that: (i)productive types include verb classes untapped in the existent literature; (ii)the range of verb classes obtained coincides with a significant range of possible interpretations and uses, suggesting that a ?same? verb (lexical and morphotactic composition) can be associated with distinct structural configurations; (iii) interpretation is highly sensitive to the grammatical context.We argue that (i)verb meaning and behavior are not deterministically driven by one (e.g. lexical/conceptual) domain but rather in interaction; (ii)syntax plays a nontrivial role in verb meaning/interpretation; (iii) non-univocity arises as a distinctive property of EAR verbs.KEYWORDS: VERB ? DERIVATION ? DENOMINAL ? LEXICON - SYNTAX ?VERBALIZER