Experimental insights into denominals and creativity in adult Romanian
The current paper investigates denominal verbs through an experiment testing how native Romanian adult speakers prefer to use and understand semi-artificial denominal (non-existent) verbs (SAD verbs) created from existing nouns, such as a cireşi ‘to cherry’ or a vulpi ‘to fox’. Regarding sentenc...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Editura Universitatii din Oradea
2022-12-01
|
| Series: | Studii de Lingvistica |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://studiidelingvistica.uoradea.ro/docs/12-2-2022/pdf-uri/Bleotu.pdf |
| Summary: | The current paper investigates denominal verbs through an
experiment testing how native Romanian adult speakers prefer to use
and understand semi-artificial denominal (non-existent) verbs (SAD
verbs) created from existing nouns, such as a cireşi ‘to cherry’ or a
vulpi ‘to fox’. Regarding sentence production, speakers generally prefer
to use SAD verbs in intransitive frames and with animate subjects.
Regarding interpretation, speakers prefer to associate the nouns/
nominal roots SAD verbs derive from with typical activities/states/
behavior, in line with Kiparsky’s (1997) Canonical Use Constraint.
Moreover, speakers mostly paraphrase animal and human role
SAD verb classes through ‘behave/become like N’ paraphrases,
while paraphrasing fruits/vegetables and object SAD verb classes
by directly combining typical activities/changes-of-state with N. We
provide a mixed cognitive-structural account, arguing that the literal
interpretation obtains when the light verb merges with the noun, and
the figurative interpretation obtains when the light verb merges with
the noun-like root, and that the frequency of the interactions between
humans and (in)animate entities and the naturalness of a comparison
between them determine the type of interpretation. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2248-2547 2284-5437 |