Browsing by Author "Carroll, Edith Rodas-New"

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    Trayectoria del verbo torquere del Latin vulgar al frances y al espanol modernos
    (1978) Carroll, Edith Rodas-New; Urrutibeheity, Hector N.
    Studies of word formation have generally treated composition and derivation separately, although in fact the division is not absolutely clear-cut in every case. In derivation there is no consensus as to the nature of the process of affixation determining whether the form or the function should be considered of major importance. Further scholarly opinion has been divided about the place of prefixation, since prefixes may also serve frequently as preposition or adverb. Composition commonly focuses on word classes of components and of the compounds themselves, and/or the relationships between component elements The base form, or root, as a point from which to examine word formation seems to be neglected. This study originated from the question as to whether by the subtraction of elements added to a seemingly stable root and tracing that root to its primitive form, one could provide a clue to the processes involved in word formation. The choice of study of The Trajectory of Torquere and Its Variants From Latin to Standard French and Spanish was determined by the empirical observation of the frequency of written forms of tordre and variations, in French, and of torcer and variations, in Spanish. The investigation of the trajectory of Torquere and its variants from Latin into Standard French and Spanish established that the root-form in the process of its evolution may serve at any stage as a base for new forms. In French, one finds word formations with TROUSS-, XIII century, beside those of TORCH-, XIV century, TORS-, XI century, TORD-, XIII century, TORT-, XIV century, TORM-, IX century, TORQU-, XIII century, TORC-, XVI century. In Spanish, there are TORC-, XIII century, TORQU-, X century, TORCH-, XV century, TORM-, XIII century, TORS-, XV century, TORT, XIII century, TORZ-, XIII century, TRUJ-, XI centiary, TUERT-, XIII century, all variants of the base root TORQU-, from torquSre. Thus, it was further established that the number and scope of minimal elements (affixation) that could be manipulated in the process of new word formation, both in form and meaning, are difficult to determine. The paradoxical conservative-innovative tendencies of language were easily observable. The base root preserves the stability of the language, while affixation and compounding provide the innovative mutations. From the root TORS-, there are in Standard Spanish and in French innumerable formations: Spanish, tors-icSh, con-tors-ion, con-tors~ionista, dis-tors-ion-ar, etc. In French, tors-ion, tors-e, tors-ade, re-tors-if, etc. It is thus concluded that the phenomena attending word formation can be studied from the investigation of primary roots and its affixations and the evolution of secondary root from these, which in turn serve as base roots to further word formations. An interesting derivative from this research, beyond the intended scope, was establishing the parallelism of roots evolved from Torquere in these two languages. Ihis parallelism showed only one exception with no correspondence in the two languages: TORD-, French, dating from the XIII century, has no correspondence in Spanish.