Salvador Valera – författare

This book provides a detailed account of morphological conversion-also known by various other names, including zero-derivation- a process whereby a word is turned into a distinct but semantically and/or grammatically related word without any change of form. Following an introductory chapter that offers an overview of morphological conversion and the main questions of interest, the volume is divided into two parts. In the first, contributors consider a range of issues relating to conversion, such as word classes, inflection, figurative language, and directionality. The chapters in the second part explore specific typological aspects of the process of conversion in a wide range of language families, including Austronesian, Dravidian, Indo-European, and Tupian. The volume offers new perspectives on conversion, moving beyond traditional Anglocentric approaches that have dominated the field to date.

A pioneering book establishing the foundations for research into word-formation typology and tendencies. It fills a gap in cross-linguistic research by being the first systematic survey of the word-formation of the world's languages. Drawing on over 1500 examples from fifty-five languages, it provides a wider global representation than any other volume. This data, from twenty-eight language families and forty-five language genera, reveals associations between word-formation processes in genetically and geographically distinct languages. Data presentation from two complementary perspectives, semasiological and onomasiological, shows both the basic functions of individual word-formation processes and the ways of expressing selected cognitive categories. Language data was gathered by way of detailed questionnaires completed by over eighty leading experts on the languages discussed. The book is aimed at academic researchers and graduate students in language typology, linguistic fieldwork and morphology.