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DOI :10.26650/jol.2023.1441684   IUP :10.26650/jol.2023.1441684    Full Text (PDF)

Word Formation in Esperanto: Derivation

Yunus Biçer

Esperanto (1887), besides being a constructed language designed as an intellectual and artistic production of the human mind, has been a subject of research and analysis that has attracted the attention of researchers in terms of its distinctive characteristics. This study examines the derivational appearances among the word-formation methods within the working mechanism of Esperanto in a descriptive and comparative manner. In this respect, the bound morphemes of suffixes and prefixes have been analysed from morphosemantic perspectives. Related morphemes have been described in terms of the novel meanings they bring to the conceptual fields of roots/stems and the behavioural restrictions they exhibit during the derivational processes. Considering the quantitative scale of the morphemes in the language, only those classified as official affixes in Wennergren (2005) have been included. Semantic categories in Bagasheva et al. (2017) have been used as a theoretical framework to label semantic information processed by morphemes into roots/stems. Findings, as the final stage, have been evaluated in terms of morphemic polysemy and homonymy, questioning Esperanto’s position against natural languages. Contrastive analyses have concluded that Esperanto behaves like a natural language in derivational processes.

Keywords: Esperanto, constructed language, morphology, word-formation methods, derivation
DOI :10.26650/jol.2023.1441684   IUP :10.26650/jol.2023.1441684    Full Text (PDF)

Esperanto’da Söz Yapımı: Türetme

Yunus Biçer

Esperanto (1887), insan zihninin düşünsel ve sanatsal bir üretimi olarak tasarlanan yapay bir dil olmasının yanı sıra yapısında barındırdığı kendine özgü özellikler bakımından da araştırmacıların ilgisini üzerine çeken bir araştırma ve inceleme konusu olmuştur. Bu çalışma, dilin varlığını sürdürebilmesi için vazgeçilmez bir konumda bulunan söz yapım yolları arasından türetme yönteminin Esperanto’nun çalışma düzeneği içerisindeki görünümlerini betimlemeli ve karşılaştırmalı olarak irdeleme amacı gütmektedir. Bu doğrultuda Esperanto’nun sözvarlığına yeni sözlükbirim üyeleri katmak için işlettiği sonek ve önek türünden bağımlı biçimbirimler, anlambilgisel ve biçimbilgisel açılardan ele alınmıştır. Söz konusu biçimbirimler, kök/gövde yapılarının kavram alanlarına kazandırdıkları yeni anlamlar ve türetme işlemleri sırasında sergiledikleri davranışsal sınırlılıklar bakımından betimlenmiştir. Dilin sahip olduğu biçimbirimlerin niceliksel boyutu göz önünde bulundurularak yalnızca Wennergren (2005)’te resmî ekler olarak sınıflandırılan biçimbirimler çalışma kapsamına alınmıştır. Biçimbirimlerin kök/gövde yapılarına işledikleri anlamsal bilgileri etiketlemek için Bagasheva ve ark. (2017)’deki anlamsal ulamlar çalışmanın kuramsal çerçevesi olarak kullanılmıştır. Çalışmanın son aşaması olarak betimlemeli incelemeler sonucunda elde edilen bulgular biçimbirimlerin sergiledikleri çokanlamlılık ve eşanlamlılık davranışları bağlamında değerlendirilerek Esperanto’nun doğal diller karşısındaki konumu sorgulanmıştır. Gerçekleştirilen karşıtsal çözümlemelere dayanarak Esperanto’nun türetme süreçlerinde doğal bir dil gibi davrandığı sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.

Keywords: Esperanto, yapay dil, biçimbilim, söz yapım yolları, türetme

EXTENDED ABSTRACT


Esperanto (1887) is a constructed language that was first and foremost designed as an intellectual and artistic production of the human mind to facilitate communication difficulties between people whose first languages are different from each other. Since the birth of the language, it has been a subject of research and analysis that has attracted the attention of researchers because of its distinctive linguistic, cultural, social, and political characteristics. Setting off from these realities, this study aims to examine the appearances of derivational practises–which is in an indispensable position for a language to continue its existence in evolutionary development, as one of the word-formation methods within the working mechanism of Esperanto in both a descriptive and comparative manner.

In this respect, the bound morphemes in the forms of suffixes and prefixes that Esperanto employs to add novel lexeme members to its vocabulary have been analysed from morphological and semantic perspectives. Related morphemes have been described in terms of the novel meanings they bring to the conceptual fields of root/stem structures and the behavioural restrictions they exhibit during the derivational processes. In these descriptions, Gledhilll (2000), Wennergren (2005), and Kellerman (2008) have been used as reference sources for grammatical definitions. Each morpheme has been exemplified with lexical items from the online dictionaries of Reta-Vortaro [Net Dictionary] (reta-vortaro.de) and Plena Ilustrita Vortaro de Esperanto [Complete Illustrated Dictionary of Esperanto] (vortaro.net). Dural (2019) has used Turkish equivalents to these lexical items. Furthermore, all the lexical items have been provided with example sentences from Tekstaro de Esperanto [Corpus of Esperanto] (tekstaro.com), which is a comprehensive compilation of original and translated written works in the Esperanto language with a total of 12,473,421 words; these example sentences have also been translated into Turkish. As for the scope and limitations of the study, only official affixes in Wennergren (2005) have been included in the sample of the study considering the quantitative scale of the morphemes that the language possesses.

Consequently, the study has focussed on the following morphemes: {-aĉ-}, {-ad-}, {-aĵ-}, {-an-}, {-ar-}, {-ĉj-}, {-ebl-}, {-ec-}, {-eg-}, {-ej-}, {-em-}, {-end-}, {-er-}, {-estr-}, {-et-}, {-id-}, {-ig-}, {-iĝ-}, {-il-}, {-in}, {-ind-}, {-ing-}, {-ism-}, {-ist-}, {-nj-}, {-obl-}, {-on-}, {-op-}, {-uj-}, {-ul-} and {-um-} as the suffixes; and {bo-}, {ĉef-}, {dis-}, {ek-}, {eks-}, {ge-}, {mal-}, {miş-}, {pra-} and {re-} as the prefixes. To label the semantic information that the morphemes process into the root/stem structures, semantic categories in Bagasheva et al. (2017)–proposed within the scope of the derivational network project (Körtvélyessyet al., 2020)–have been used as the theoretical framework of the study. In total, 34 semantic categories were used to label the semantic characteristics of the bound morphemes.

As the final stage of the study, findings have been evaluated in terms of polysemy and homonymy behaviours exhibited by the morphemes, and Esperanto’s position against natural languages has been questioned. Rather than “one-to-one” principle, Esperanto’s bound morpheme inventory shows the features of “one-to-many” in polysemous and “many-to-many” in synonymous formations. As an example of the former case, {-ec-} has the derivational power to fulfil the semantic functions of STATIVE, ABSTRACTION, TEMPORAL and SIMILATIVE in different derivational environments. The latter case, on the other hand, has been detected in the independent morphemes of {-an-}, {-estr-}, and {-ist-}, all of which are agentive markers; however, they differ from each other in that the first has the semantic detail of “supporter of x,” the second “the manager of y,” and the third “the professional of z.” In conclusion, contrastive analyses between Esperanto as an epitome of constructed languages and natural languages such as Turkish and English have concluded that Esperanto behaves like a natural language in derivational processes.


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Biçer, Y. (2024). Word Formation in Esperanto: Derivation. The Journal of Linguistics, 0(41), 53-86. https://doi.org/10.26650/jol.2023.1441684


AMA

Biçer Y. Word Formation in Esperanto: Derivation. The Journal of Linguistics. 2024;0(41):53-86. https://doi.org/10.26650/jol.2023.1441684


ABNT

Biçer, Y. Word Formation in Esperanto: Derivation. The Journal of Linguistics, [Publisher Location], v. 0, n. 41, p. 53-86, 2024.


Chicago: Author-Date Style

Biçer, Yunus,. 2024. “Word Formation in Esperanto: Derivation.” The Journal of Linguistics 0, no. 41: 53-86. https://doi.org/10.26650/jol.2023.1441684


Chicago: Humanities Style

Biçer, Yunus,. “Word Formation in Esperanto: Derivation.” The Journal of Linguistics 0, no. 41 (Nov. 2024): 53-86. https://doi.org/10.26650/jol.2023.1441684


Harvard: Australian Style

Biçer, Y 2024, 'Word Formation in Esperanto: Derivation', The Journal of Linguistics, vol. 0, no. 41, pp. 53-86, viewed 26 Nov. 2024, https://doi.org/10.26650/jol.2023.1441684


Harvard: Author-Date Style

Biçer, Y. (2024) ‘Word Formation in Esperanto: Derivation’, The Journal of Linguistics, 0(41), pp. 53-86. https://doi.org/10.26650/jol.2023.1441684 (26 Nov. 2024).


MLA

Biçer, Yunus,. “Word Formation in Esperanto: Derivation.” The Journal of Linguistics, vol. 0, no. 41, 2024, pp. 53-86. [Database Container], https://doi.org/10.26650/jol.2023.1441684


Vancouver

Biçer Y. Word Formation in Esperanto: Derivation. The Journal of Linguistics [Internet]. 26 Nov. 2024 [cited 26 Nov. 2024];0(41):53-86. Available from: https://doi.org/10.26650/jol.2023.1441684 doi: 10.26650/jol.2023.1441684


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Biçer, Yunus. “Word Formation in Esperanto: Derivation”. The Journal of Linguistics 0/41 (Nov. 2024): 53-86. https://doi.org/10.26650/jol.2023.1441684



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Submitted22.02.2024
Accepted29.04.2024
Published Online30.05.2024

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