Focusing on unproductive morphology: a study of acronyms
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5433/2237-4876.2006v9n2p9Keywords:
Acronyms, Word formation, Lexical productivity, Morphology, Brazilian Portuguese.Abstract
The present article analyses the morphology of acronyms in contemporary Brazilian Portuguese under the productivity point of view. Its analysis is based on Sandmann (1988) as well as on Aronoff & Anshen’s (1988) study about productivity, and, more specifically, on Basílio’s (1980) proposal of analyzing productivity according to two kinds of distinct rules – word formation rules and structural analysis rules. When analyzing the present proposals of productivity studies, one sees that those studies aim at a kind of morphology which focuses phenomena which can be rule-described. Acronyms do not meet the morphological criteria since they do not have a root, a suffix or a prefix, and also because it is not possible to predict the acronym which will come out from a title. Acronym formation is intentional, which characterizes the process as unproductive. This way, acronym formation is an instance of unproductive morphology in Brazilian Portuguese.
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