English morphology and word-formation

Serving as a basic introduction to the field of English morphology and word-formation, this book also tries to advance the state-of-the-art in this field in a number of respects. The author takes his readers gently through the basic notions in English morphology and word-formation and discusses problematic areas and definitorial questions. All chapters are approached systematically from three different angles focusing on structural, cognitive and sociopragmatic aspects of the field. In this way, new perspectives are opened particularly on the development and establishment of new complex words, on the cognitive functions of word-formation patterns and on the field of conversion. Students of English and linguistics will be able to use this book not only as an introduction but also for preparing exams, term papers and final theses. The large number of examples are taken from a corpus of authentic language, which also serves as a basis for frequency counts of morphological features and elements in different text-types.