The Indonesian prefixes PE- and PEN- : A study in productivity and allomorphy

This study examines two nominalizing prefixes in Indonesian:PE- andPEN-, which derive nouns from verbs with a range of meanings similar to that found in-er suffix in English. The prefixPE- is form-invariant, whereasPEN- has several nasal allomorphs. Given their similarity in form and function, the question arises of whetherPE- andPEN- are allomorphs. We conducted a corpus-based analysis of their productivity, using the written Indonesian corpus in the Leipzig Corpora Collection. In this corpus,PEN- is apparently more productive thanPE-. Interestingly, the frequency of words withPEN- correlates significantly with the productivity of the corresponding base verbs. In addition,PEN- is more integrated into the verbal system; verbs that havePEN- are part of larger verb families.PEN- attaches almost exclusively to verbs and creates nouns denoting agents and instruments. By contrast,PE- creates nouns denoting agents and patients and attaches not only to verbs but also to nouns and adjectives. For derived words withPE-, there is no significant correlation between the frequency of the nominalization and the frequency of its base.PE- also does not participate in the linearity of the productivity of the allomorphs of base and derived words that characterizesPEN-. Words withPE- are also more often input to further reduplication and inflectional variants than is the case forPEN-. This corpus-based research thus illustrates that affixes can have different qualitative and quantitative proper...
Source: European Journal of Applied Physiology - Category: Physiology Source Type: research