Productive word-formation models of German adverbs with the suffix -maßen

The article is devoted to a comprehensive study of the word-formation potential of German adverbs with the suffix -maßen. The study was conducted using the DWDS German corpus and corpus analysis methods. The article specifies the origin of the modern suffix -maßen, used to form adverbs, and traces its historical connection with the proper feminine noun mãze. The main content of the study is the description of the word-formation models of derivative adverbs with the suffix -maßen. When systematizing the empirical material, we distinguished models with a productive base expressed by participle I and II / adjectival participle I and II / adjective / pronoun / adverb / article / numeral + -maßen. The work reveals the content of the concepts of productivity and frequency, analyzes the possibilities of quantitative measurement of the identified models’ productivity using statistical methods of corpus linguistics. Through a quantitative analysis of types, tokens and hapax legomena, it was determined that the most productive word-formation models are “participle II / adjectival participle II + -maßen” and “adjective + -maßen”. Unproductive but frequent models include models with a base expressed by a pronoun or an article. In conclusion, the idea is substantiated that the adverbial suffix -maßen carries a certain functional load, in particular, it shows the belonging of a word to the class of adverbs and marks passivity.

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