The blurring of the boundaries: changes in verb/noun heterosemy in Recent English

IF 1 2区文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory Pub Date : 2023-06-12 DOI:10.1515/cllt-2022-0053

Bin Shao, Jing Zheng, Hendrik De Smet

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Abstract Conversion is a common feature of present-day English, leading to many ‘heterosemous’ words that express related meanings across multiple word classes. Especially common is verb/noun heterosemy, as in flow or hand, both of which can be used as verbs or as nouns. The prevalence of verb/noun heterosemy sets English apart from closely related Germanic languages and is one respect in which English behaves as a language with high boundary permeability. This paper investigates how verb/noun heterosemy has been evolving in Recent English (1920s–2010s). Using quantitative analysis within a large sample of 877 heterosemous words, it is shown that associations between specific words and word classes have been weakening over the last century. More precisely, within our sample, heterosemous words on average tend to develop towards more balanced heterosemy, whereby their association to either one word class or another becomes less pronounced. The findings suggest that English is in the process of a long-term drift towards greater boundary permeability. As high boundary permeability has been associated with low reliance on inflectional morphology in a language, this could be a long-term consequence of the overall loss of inflections earlier in the history of the language.

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边界的模糊:近代英语动词/名词异质现象的变化

摘要转换是当今英语的一个常见特征，导致许多“异性恋”单词在多个单词类别中表达相关含义。特别常见的是动词/名词的异义词，如flow或hand，两者都可以用作动词或名词。动词/名词异质性的盛行使英语与密切相关的日耳曼语言区别开来，也是英语作为一种具有高度边界渗透性的语言表现出来的一个方面。本文研究了20世纪20年代至2010年代的现代英语中动词/名词的异义现象是如何演变的。通过对877个异表情词的大样本进行定量分析，发现在过去一个世纪里，特定单词和单词类别之间的联系一直在减弱。更准确地说，在我们的样本中，异性恋单词平均倾向于向更平衡的异性恋发展，从而它们与一个单词类别或另一个单词类型的关联变得不那么明显。研究结果表明，英语正处于一个长期向更大的边界渗透性漂移的过程中。由于高边界渗透性与语言中对屈折形态的低依赖性有关，这可能是语言历史早期屈折整体缺失的长期结果。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory Multiple-

CiteScore

4.20

自引率

12.50%

发文量

期刊介绍： Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory (CLLT) is a peer-reviewed journal publishing high-quality original corpus-based research focusing on theoretically relevant issues in all core areas of linguistic research, or other recognized topic areas. It provides a forum for researchers from different theoretical backgrounds and different areas of interest that share a commitment to the systematic and exhaustive analysis of naturally occurring language. Contributions from all theoretical frameworks are welcome but they should be addressed at a general audience and thus be explicit about their assumptions and discovery procedures and provide sufficient theoretical background to be accessible to researchers from different frameworks. Topics Corpus Linguistics Quantitative Linguistics Phonology Morphology Semantics Syntax Pragmatics.