LINGUIST List 11.1240

Fri Jun 2 2000

Qs: -ee Suffix in English

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

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Anja Wanner, question: -ee suffix in English

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Message 1: question: -ee suffix in English

Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2000 09:56:28 -0500
From: Anja Wanner <awannerfacstaff.wisc.edu>
Subject: question: -ee suffix in English




I am interested in the distributional and functional properties of the -ee suffix in English. It seems that there aren't many usualized -ee nouns, most of them formed on the basis of latinate verb stems and referring to the GOAL of a transaction (narratee, nominee, awardee). On the other hand -ee nouns seem to be used as a thematic contrast to derivations on -er/-or, in which case they refer to the PATIENT argument and do not seem to underlie any morphological restrictions (for instance, in linguistic texts people talk about binders and bindees, kissers and kissees). When it comes to one-argument verbs, -ee suffixation might be a criterion to differentiate between unergative and unaccusative verbs (escapee vs. dancer). Does anybody know any corpus-based studies of the -ee suffix?

Many thanks, anja wanner university of wisconsin-madison

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