Morphophonological Distribution and Productivity of -ity and -ness under Constraints

Abstract

This study aims to explore the morphological distribution and productivity of noun-forming suffixes -ity and -ness in regard to etymological data and corpus-based approaches, and to analyze their morphophonological properties by agreement- and prosody-based constraints. The data show that the Latinate suffix -ity and the Germanic suffix -ness attach to the adjectival bases remarkably, which have the corresponding lexical origin to them respectively and stress shift occurring only in -ity derivatives, while word formation processes of the derivatives differ depending on derived bases and underived bases, and also there are exceptional derivatives combined with both -ity and -ness. These could be significantly examined by agreement and prosodic constraints AGREE[G-ness], AGREE[L-ity], and [σσ]# in the ascendancy, to which the derivative-specific constraint [L-ity,-ness] would add. The results pertinently clarify the morphophonological distribution based on etymology and comparative productivity of -ity and -ness formations under constraints.