Derivational morphology in proper names: scenario knowledge and the paradigmatic lexicon

Abstract

The ProSPar model is an in-progress theory of word formation and meaning that tries to explain how morphological relations and world knowledge shape novel word formation and novel word meaning. In this thesis, I analyze the derived words of 40 proper names in Spanish employing some of the notions of the model to address a challenge that this kind of derivation poses for it. The challenge is how to make the notion of scenario, which seems to work well with the derivation of other kinds of words, operative in the analysis of derivatives of proper names. Data analysis suggests that one way to understand the scenarios is as models of knowledge that group entities (or types of entities) such as intellectual movement, the referent itself, qualities, individuals, actions, periods of time, historical events, appreciations and linguistic expressions. Since understanding scenarios in this way allows us to explain some inferences about the interpretation of new words, it seems a plausible proposal.