Affiliation:
1. Université de Fribourg
2. Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
3. Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès
Abstract
Summary
The lexicalization of morphologically complex words, i.e. their inclusion in the lexicon, can involve a loss of
semantic compositionality. Such a phenomenon, called demotivation, has been overlooked in both morphological and lexical studies,
notably regarding its gradual nature. This paper compares two measures of demotivation based on experimental and distributional
semantics approaches. It builds on the evaluation of 78 pairs of French verbs and derived nouns selected to represent three levels
of demotivation. The comparison of the two approaches using speakers’ judgements and word vector similarity indicates convergence
on the identification of demotivation degrees within a continuum, while also highlighting specific aspects of each method. The
study provides direction to further research on morphosemantic demotivation, bridging together semantic, morphological and
methodological considerations.
Publisher
John Benjamins Publishing Company