Abstract/Summary

This paper relates two levels of constructional analysis in accounting for the functions of verb-forming suffixation in English: argument structure constructions and suffix schemas. The function of verbal-forming suffixation expressed by the four suffixes in English, -ize, -ify, -en and -ate, has been shown to exhibit a wide range of semantic categories that correspond to a number of argument structure constructions (Laws 2023). The current paper extends that semantic analysis. Firstly, by using a Construction Morphology approach (Booij 2010) to formalize the relationship between argument structure and suffix schemas proposed by Laws. Secondly, a hierarchical view of verb-class and subclass argument structure constructions is articulated by using semantic rules that involve selection and enrichment by coercion within suffix subschemas. Thirdly, it is demonstrated that the motivation for partially opaque complex verbs with these suffixes can be expressed by referring to paradigmatic relationships between these complex verbs and other related words.