Extragrammatical and Marginal Morphology and Poetic Creativity

Kurzfassung/Abstract

This chapter deals with three types of conscious morphological operations (including their outputs) which are not part of the core of the grammar and the lexicon. In the terminology of Natural Morphology (henceforth NatMorph), these are (a) extragrammatical morphological operations such as shortening or blending, deliberately performed “outside regular grammar”, (b) marginal morphological operations, e.g., in onomastic morphology, which uses grammatical morphological operations, but with specific properties, and (c) the coinage of poetic occasionalisms, which are for the most part regular formations designed for a specific text, but not for the general lexicon. All three types refer to the coinage of new words as well as to the inflection of existing ones, with a strong focus on the former. This focus also prevails in the present chapter. As has been typical for NatMorph since its beginnings, there are often continua between grammatical, extragrammatical and marginal morphology. Examples are taken as far as possible from English or German, but occasionally also from other languages. The literature cited focuses on Natural Linguistics in the widest sense (comprising its critics), but also includes some highly relevant contributions from other linguistic frameworks as well as standard works, relating them to NatMorph.