LINGUIST List 10.1286

Fri Sep 3 1999

Qs: Neologisms, Formal Features Acquisition Order

Editor for this issue: Naomi Ogasawara <naomilinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Josi Ramsn Varela Pirez, Neologisms & productivity
2. Arash Behazin, Formal Features Acquisition Order

Neologisms & productivity

Dear linguists,

I am searching for discussions in the linguistic literature on the
motives for neologising. I am thinking of lexical innovations created
by word-formation processes. Why is "multi-" a popular prefix today,
as exemplified by an increasing number of new types of this prefix in
English corpora? Why are lexical means of marking small size, value,
etc. in English being displaced by innovative diminutive prefixes such
as mini- and micro- ? It is clear that the degree of productivity of
affixes such multi-, micro-, mini- and other 'vogue' affixes has
increased considerably. But the question is why. I am looking for
references on the extralinguistic (social, cultural, register,
cognitive, textual, etc.) factors that seem to intervene in the
process of lexical innovaton by means of WF processes? I'll post a
summary of the messages I receive plus a list of bibliographic
references on neologising.

Thank you for your attention

Josi Ramsn Varela
University of Santiago
jrvperezhotmail.com
iaramonusc.es

Dear linguists,
 I wonder if there has been any reports about acquisition order of formal
 features in the field? I suppose last year Dr Roger Hawkins
(University of Essex) gave a paper at Pacslrf in which he proposed
that L2 learners have particular problems with uninterpretable
features. The title was "The inaccessability of formal features of
functional categories in second language acquisition". Unfortunately I
don't have access to such papers, would you be kind enough to provide
me with any related information? Please let me know more about
interpretability of formal features, learnability of formal features
and studies which have been carried out with direct reference to
Checking Theory and Second Language Acquisition if possible. Can any
one provide me with Dr Roger Hawkins e mail too? All my heartiest
thanks to you in advance.
 Arash Behazin