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3 - -less and -free

from Part I - Lexico-Semantic Aspects of Complex Words

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2020

By
Mark Aronoff
Edited by
Lívia Körtvélyessy  and
Pavol Štekauer
Lívia Körtvélyessy
Affiliation:
P. J. Šafárik University, Košice, Slovakia
Pavol Štekauer
Affiliation:
P. J. Šafárik University, Košice, Slovakia
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Summary

The formation of new words ending in free(e.g. costfree, glutenfree, and troublefree) has become highly productive since the turn of the millennium. The new suffix free has found an ecological niche that is distinct from that of its rival -less: expressions of the form Xfree have developed a new sense quite distinct from those of the rival form Xless. We demonstrate our claim by comparing internet citations of existing words of the form Xless with equivalent new words of the form Xfree.

Keywords

suffixcompetitive exclusionsecondary lexical entailmentproductivity
Type
Chapter
Information
Complex Words
Advances in Morphology
 , pp. 55 - 64
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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References

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