Word-formation in a diachronic corpus: remarks on the productivity of the suffixes -mento and -zione in the Italian language of the 16th century

Abstract

The paper deals with the productivity of two deverbal suffixes, -mento and -zione, in the 16th century. The article shows, within the quantitative approach to morphological productivity, how the presence of -zione is to be taken only as a case of a massive borrowing process.

Keywords

• diachronic corpus
• word-formation
• morphological productivity
• Italian language of the Cinquecento
• suffixes -mento and -zione.