As part of elucidating the syntax-morphology interaction, this study investigates where and how complex verbs are formed in Japanese and English. Focusing on the Japanese verb-forming suffix -ka-suru (e.g. toshi-o gendai-ka-suru ‘modernize city’), relevant verbs are extracted from a large-scale corpus and they receive an in-depth analysis from semantic, morphosyntactic, and functional viewpoints. The properties of -ka-suru and those of its English counterpart are then compared and contrasted. The result reveals three main points: (i) -ka-suru verbs are constantly created in syntactic settings to fulfill the functions of brevity and conceptualization, (ii) while denominal -ize derivatives have several submeanings such as ‘result,’ ‘ornative,’ and ‘agentive,’ -ka-suru equivalents retain the meaning ‘result,’ and (iii) -ka-suru can be combined with compound nouns, but -ize cannot. We will demonstrate that the above features originate in the underlying syntactic structure related to each suffix and their difference, thus supporting the thesis of syntactic word formation. (1) ji-kokumin-o moomai-ka-suru one’s-people-ACC ignorant-change-do ‘make one’s people ignorant’ (2) shinikaketa momiji-o bonsai-ka-suru dying maple-ACC bonsai-change-do ‘turn a dying maple into a bonsai’

The present study explores the semantic and structural aspects of word formation processes in English, focusing on how verbs are derived by the suffixes -ize, -ify, -en, and -ate. Based on relevant derivatives extracted from the British National Corpus, their detailed observation is made from semantic and formal viewpoints. Then their theoretical analysis is carried out in the framework of generative theory. The BNC survey demonstrates that (i) the meanings of derived verbs are largely divided into five types and the submeanings are closely related to each other, (ii) the well-formedness of derived verbs is primarily determined by the semantic and formal features of their bases, and (iii) -ize suffixation is creative enough to provide a constant supply for new labels. To account for these empirical observations, the mechanism for forming -ize derivatives is proposed in which the semantic properties and creativity of -ize derivation stem solely from the underlying structure and the formal properties of the bases derive from the lexical entry of -ize.

The present study investigates the formal and semantic properties of derivational morphology, dealing in particular with -able derivatives in English (e.g. the recorder is pocketable ). Focusing principally on hapax legomena in a large corpus, a reliable indicator of online coinage, -able derivatives are extracted from it. Detailed observation of them is carried out and then their theoretical analysis is conducted in the framework of generative morphology. The data analysis elucidates (i) a core aspect of -able : it productively attaches to transitive verbs to produce modalized passive adjectives whose external arguments are restricted to Theme arguments and (ii) a peripheral facet: the basic meaning of -able as well as its prototypical base category and external argument are extended, on a small scale, to other kinds of meaning and category. Based on these empirical observations, major and minor formation rules are proposed to deal respectively with regular and sub-regular -able derivation.

The present study explores the productivity of word formation processes in English, focusing on word composition by suffixes such as ​-ize (e.g. transcendentalize​), ​-(a)(t)ion (​territorization)​ , and ​-al (​realizational​). An optimal productivity measure for affixation is identified, which makes best use of hapax legomena in a large-scale corpus and attaches great importance to the base forms of an affix. This measure is then applied to the data collected from a large corpus to compute the productivity values of twelve kinds of affixes. The detailed investigation reveals that (i) the high productivity rate of an affix demonstrates a creative aspect of the affix, giving full support to the idea of “generative” morphology, (ii) productivity is gradient; very high, fairly high, and low productivity of affixes are recognizable, and (iii) this is necessarily reflected in determining the word form of a derivative (cf. ​territoriz​ation​); competition is carried out to decide which affix is selected for a given base form (​territorize​) and the “losers” (​-ment/-al​) are blocked out.