Transitional Morphology

Combining Forms (CFs) are a major morphological phenomenon in Modern English yet while they have been discussed in some morphological literature no full-length study has been devoted to this topic so far. This pioneering book addresses that gap by providing a framework in which CFs are marked as distinct from their neighbouring categories such as abbreviations and blending. It splits CFs into four distinct categories neoclassical (e.g. bio-therapy zoo-logy) abbreviated (e.g. e-reader econo-politics) secreted (e.g. oil-gate computer-holic) and splinters (e.g. docu- from documentary in docudrama). It shows that the notion of CF spans a wide spectrum of processes from regular composition to abbreviation from blending to analogy and schema. Modern and emerging English CFs are analysed by adopting a corpus-based approach and measuring their realised expanding and potential productivity. Comprehensive yet accessible it is essential reading for researchers and advanced students of morphology English historical linguistics corpus linguistics and lexicography.