Word-formation in diachrony. Studies in Italian derivational morphology between the 16th and 19th centuries

Abstract

This book investigates three word-formation phenomena in Italian within a time span from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The study aims to describe the progressive loss of the suffix -gione, the overall quantitative situation and the increasing productivity of the learnèd variant -zione, and the diachronic evolution of verb-noun compounds of the type portalettere.

Keywords

• Italian
• 16th-19th centuries
• Word-formation
• Suffixes -gione/-zione
• Verb-noun compounds
• Morphological productivity.