Notion Of Productivity

Question 1

What is productivity of morphological processes.

What is the most productive morphological process and the least productive morphological rule.

Answer 1

• (Bauer,

1) NATURALNESS

• word formation process is productive if the neologisms are natural.
  Meaning
  If a speaker hardly notices, or the creation is unconscious or unintentional - productive.

‘less’ ‘ness’

If the neologisms seems unnatural, noticeable, or a the creation is intentional or conscious- less productive (CREATIVE)

Mantalese (mental language)

2) RULE’S DOMAIN

Morphological rules are productive if routinely created new words within the rule’s domain.
Simplified.
If all the the words under a certain rules domain follow the same morphological process -productive.
Plurality rule : adding “s”➡️ inflection
:) inflection is a productive morph. Process

3) CREATION OF NEW WORDS.

A morphological process is productive it actively creates new words.

Plag (1991) A morphological process is productive if it is regularly and actively used in creating totally new words.

Based on this ⬆️

Most productive - affixation, compounds, conversion
Less productive - borrowings, clippings, backformation
Least productive - coinages