On the edge between nouns and verbs. The heterogeneous behavior of Spanish deverbal nominalizations empirically verified

This study investigates the intricate semantic and morphosyntactic behavior of morphological nominalizations. Besides offering an in-depth quantitative and qualitative description of a set of Spanish nominals, it empirically verifies to what extent the more ‘nouny’ items adopt nominal features more frequently than the more ‘verby’ items. The starting point is the tripartite semantic distinction between referential, event, and state nominals, whose morphosyntactic behavior is then described on the basis of a detailed corpus analysis. The following properties are analyzed: determination, modification, number, and argument structure. The corpus study makes it possible to verify a series of theoretical assumptions on the processes of deverbalization and substantivization, and in particular the applicability of the hierarchical clines proposed within a typological perspective. The article also explores the possibility of creating an integrated transcategorization cline, and for that purpose combines all morphological features – nominal as well as verbal ones – into a multifactorial (classification tree) model.
Source: Language Sciences - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research