Acquisition of English nominal suffix -er by advanced EFL learners: a view from usage-based perspective

The present study investigated advanced Croatian EFL learners’ knowledge of five mean-ings of the English nominal (deverbal) suffix -er. It probed their ability to comprehend and produce corpus-rare and presumably unentrenched -er nouns in their prototypical agent and instrument meanings and their non-prototypical patient, locative, and causative meanings. It was hypothesized that participants would deal effortlessly with agent and instrument meanings of the low-frequency nouns since the corpus-attested high type frequency of -er agents and instruments, among others, suggests the existence of productive correspond-ing schemas. We hypothesized that participants would struggle with patient, locative and causative meanings of the low-frequency nouns since the corpus-attested low type frequency of the three functions arguably does not support their association with -er. A recognition and a production test were administered to two separate groups of English majors at a Croatian public university (n = 131). Results confirm general usage-based predictions about better performance with low-frequency agent and instrument -er nouns. However, a detailed examination reveals unexpected results, which confirm that frequency, however important, is not the only factor to include in a future model of EFL learners’ derivational proficiency

THE MEANINGS AND FORMS OF THE CROATIAN SUFFIX -AR-A: A CORPUS STUDY

Tema su ovog rada suvremeni trendovi u uporabi hrvatskog sufiksa -ar-a uključujući njegove oblike -jar-a, -onjar-a, -enjar-a, -uskar-a i druge zatečene u hrvatskom mrežnom korpusu hrWaC (skupno AR-A). Ciljevi rada su sljedeći: (i) utvrditi koja su značenja sufiksa trenutno najzastupljenija i, moguće, najproduktivnija; (ii) utvrditi distribuciju temeljnog i proširenih oblika sufiksa s obzirom na dvije globalne kategorije značenja, tzv. mutacijsko i modifikacijsko (evaluativno u širem smislu); (iii) ponuditi hipoteze o motivaciji i mehanizmima nastanka barem nekih od proširenih oblika sufiksa. Temeljeći analizu na relevantnim spoznajama u području tvorbe riječi, a posebice evaluativnoj morfologiji, pokazali smo da se semantički i formalni profil sufiksacija građenih sufiksom -AR-A u svim njegovim oblicima razlikuje od njegova opisa u relevantnoj literaturi. Također, pokazali smo i da se u nekim od tipičnih značajki evaluativnih morfoloških sredstava može pronaći motivacija za nastanak nekih od proširenih oblika sufiksa mehanizmima reanalize.This paper presents current trends in the use of the Croatian suffix -ar-a, including its forms -onjar-a, -enjar-a, -uskar-a and others featured in the examples sourced from the hrWaC corpus (jointly referred to as AR-A). The goals of the paper were threefold: (i) to establish which of the suffixal meanings are currently the most widespread and possibly productive; (ii) to establish how the short vs. expanded forms of the suffix distribute between two global categories of word-formation meaning, viz. mutational and modificational (broadly evaluative); (iii) to submit preliminary hypotheses about the motivation and mechanisms behind the development of at least some of the expanded forms. Leaning on the relevant insights from the contemporary word-formationscholarship, especially evaluative morphology, our analysis has shown that the semantic and formal profile of -AR-A suffixations departs from the  established description. We have also found that some of the characteristic properties of evaluative morphology may have triggered the emergence of some of -AR-A’s expanded forms by reanalysis