Clipping in a cross-linguistic perspective
| Collaborateur | David Correia Saavedra |
| Résumé |
This project studies shortened words such as 'prof' for 'professor'
or 'exam' for examination. In linguistics, these words are known as
clippings. How do speakers coin new clipped words? Why do speakers
of English shorten 'laboratory' to 'lab', while speakers of French
shorten 'laboratoire' to 'labo'? These questions have not received
full answers in existing linguistic work. The research in this
project will try to uncover the regularities that underlie
speakers' behavior when they produce shortened variants of existing
words. Based on a large database of shortened words in English and
French, the project will create a computational model that allows
us to understand what factors play a role in clipping. The point of
departure for this research is the hypothesis that clipping follows
predictable tendencies, that these tendencies can be described
statistically, and that the features of that model can be explained
in terms of psychological and linguistic factors. In order to test
the validity of this model, the project will carry out experimental
studies in which speakers will be asked to shorten existing words.
The performance of the statistical model will be compared
systematically to what the speakers do. This comparison will allow
us to gain a deeper understanding of how clipping works as a
linguistic phenomenon. |
| Mots-clés |
morphology; clipping; corpus linguistics; construction grammar; word formation; psycholinguistics |
| Type de projet | Recherche fondamentale |
| Domaine de recherche | Linguistics |
| Source de financement | FNS |
| Etat | En cours |
| Début de projet | 1-1-2020 |
| Fin du projet | 31-12-2023 |
| Budget alloué | 594'646.00 |
| Contact | Martin Hilpert |