From event to result in English -ation: Insights from comparison with -er

Abstract

This article examines the English suffix -ation within a hybrid Scenario Model (SM) and Relational Morphology (RM) framework. We claim that -ation lexicalizes a compact “event-plus-result mini-scenario inherited from Latin -ātiō. The derived noun thus evokes both the unfolding process and the state or product that follows it. Derivation begins with an SM filter. Only verbs that denote an extended activity naturally culminating in an outcome can host the suffix. Surviving candidates enter the RM network, where each verb family is represented by a mother schema containing open role variables. For -er, the mother schema consists of a single semantic variable. Speakers then freely instantiate it as Agent, Instrument, Location, and other participant roles, which explains the suffix’s broad semantic range. By contrast, -ation adds an intermediate Event mother schema whose only daughter is Result. Consequently, the lattice stops once the Process and its outcome are recorded. If a potential reading is already realized by an entrenched schema, RM records no additional -ation sister, leaving further readings idiosyncratic. The model also accounts for the rare Instrument and plantation-type -ation Location nouns. They arise through a metonymic hop from the Result node and persist only when no rival form occupies that semantic slot.