Types of lexical complexity in English: syntactic categories and the lexicon
- ms. — published as: Anderson, John M. 2012. Types of lexical complexity in English: syntactic categories and the lexicon. Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 47.4, 3-51.
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Types of lexical complexity in English… focuses on minimal (non-compound, non-phrasal) signs that are nevertheless internally complex in their syntactic categorization. Sometimes this is signalled by morphology – affixation or internal modification. But there are also conversions. In terms of categorial structure, we can distinguish between absorptions, where the source of the base is associated with a distinct category, and incorporation, where the base is categorically constant. Incorporation is thus typically reflected in inflectional morphology. Absorption may be associated with morphological change or conversion – with retention of the base in a different categorization. But categorial complexity may be nonderived, covert: the categorial complexity of an item is evident only in its syntax and semantics.
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49 pages, 279kb