Parasynthesis in Morphology

Abstract

The term parasynthesis is mainly used in modern theoretical linguistics in the meaning introduced by Arsène Darmesteter (1874) to refer to denominal or deadjectival prefixed verbs of the Romance languages (Fr. embarquer ‘to load, to board’) in which the non-prefixed verb (barquer) is not an actual word, and the co-radical nominal form (embarqu-) is not well formed. The Romance parasynthetic verb is characterized with reference to its nominal or adjectival base as the result of the co-occurrence of both a prefix and a suffix (typically of a conversion process, i.e., non-overt derivational marking). The co-occurrence or simultaneity of the two processes has been seen by some scholars as a circumfixation phenomenon, whereby two elements act in combination. The peculiar relationship existing between base and parasynthetic verb is particularly problematic for an Item and Process theoretical perspective since this approach entails the application of one process at a time. Conversely, a Word and Paradigm framework deals more easily with parasynthetic patterns, as parasynthetic verbs are put in relation with prefixed verbs and verbs formed by conversion, without being undermined neither by gaps in derivational patterns nor by the possible concomitant addition of prefixes and suffixes. Due to their peculiar structure, parasynthetic verbs have been matter of investigation even for non-specialists of Romance languages, especially from synchronic (or, better said, achronic) point of view. Attention has been also placed on their diachronic development in that, despite being characteristic of the Romance languages, parasynthetic verbs were already present, although to a lesser extent, in Latin. The diachronic development of parasynthetic verbs is strictly connected with that of spatial verb prefixes from Latin to the Romance languages, with particular reference to their loss of productivity in the encoding of spatial meanings and their grammaticalization into actionality markers. Parasynthetic verbs have been in the Romance languages since their earliest stages and have shown constant productivity and diffusion in all the Romance varieties, thus differing from spatial prefixes, which underwent a strong reduction in productivity in combination with verbs. The term parasynthetic is sometimes also used to refer to nouns and adjectives derived from compounds or in which both a prefix and a suffix are attached to a lexical base. In the case of nominal and adjectival formation, there is much less consensus among scholars on the need to use this term, as well as on which processes should fall under this label. The common denominator of such cases consists either in the non-attestation of presumed intermediate stages (Sp. corchotaponero ‘relative to the industry of cork plugs’) or in the non-correspondence between sense and structure of the morphologically complex word (Fr. surnaturel ‘supernatural’).

A typology of denominal verb formation strategies

“…Another well-documented diachronic process in the domain of denominal verb formation is the emergence of parasynthetic denominal verbs in Romance. As shown by Iacobini (2020), parasynthetic verbs begin to emerge in low registers of Late Latin, as a consequence of the desemanticization of the two spatial prefixes in-and ad-. These two prefixes were used with full spatial meaning in Classical Latin (accurro 'to run to' vs. curro 'to run'; includo 'to enclose' vs. claudo 'to close'), but they tend to lose any spatial meaning in later stages of the language, where synonymic couples such as incurvo/curvo 'to make curve/to bend' are attested.…”

“…As a result of this desemanticization, the two prefixes started to combine with nominal and adjectival bases, yielding denominal/deadjectival verbs which lack a non‐prefixed counterpart ( adunco ‘to make hooked’ < uncus ‘hook’; inesco ‘to entice with bait’ < esca ‘bait’). The two prefixes also started developing ingressive meaning when combined with nominal and adjectival bases, possibly ‘through the metaphorical reinterpretation of the change of place as a change of state’ (Iacobini, 2020, p. 10): cases in point are incallo ‘to make calloused/to harden’ or irretio ‘to enmesh’ (see Iacobini, 2020 and references therein).…”

“…Parasynthesis is a term that has been coined to account for some denominal/deadjectival verbs in Romance and other European languages in which a prefix and a suffix co‐occur, such as Catalan embarcar ‘to embark’ < barca ‘boat’. Parasynthetic verbs are considered by some scholars a special case of circumfixed verbs in the broad sense (see Iacobini, 2020 for a theoretical discussion), whereas according to other scholars they result from a two‐stage derivation process involving a conversion, yielding a (frequently non‐existent) denominal verb ( barca > *barcar ), and a derivation by means of prefixation ( *barcar > embarcar ). In languages in which parasynthetic denominal verbs are said to exist, conversion is a widespread DVFS.…”

Rivalidad de mecanismos verbalizadores en la historia del español

“…En esta etapa, se observa que las verbalizaciones presentan generalmente prefijos desemantizados (cf. Iacobini 2010Iacobini , 2019Iacobini , 2021Gibert-Sotelo 2020). Esto significa, como señala Iacobini (2019), que los prefijos románicos a-y en-carecen de un valor espacial concreto y, simplemente, su función es indicar que un cambio de estado tiene lugar.…”

Démonette-2, a derivational database for French with broad lexical coverage and fine-grained morphological descriptions

“…Démonette's entries can describe a wide range of morphological constructions, including suffixation, prefixation, and most non-canonical derivations like conversion (Tribout, 2012) and parasynthetic formations (Hathout & Namer 2014bIacobini, 2020). More generally, Démonette can account for all types of binary derivational relations as between a noun such as entoilage.Nm 'interfacing' and its base entoiler.V 'to stiffens with canvas', or one of the ancestors of its base, i.e., toile.Nf 'canvas', between two lexemes derived from the same base, such as entoilage.Nm 'interfacing' and entoilement.Nm 'interfacing', or between two more distant members of the same family, like toiliste.Nm 'worker who stiffens with canvas' and entoilage.Nm.…”