Nominalizations in a calculus of lexical semantic representations

Abstract

The history of generative grammar has been such that exploration of the structure and meanings of words has long stayed on the back burner. With respect to the structure of words, this picture began to change in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s with the appearance of the first substantial works on the structure of word formation within the theory (e.g., Aronoff 1976; Lieber 1980; Williams 1981; Selkirk 1982). Following this there was a gradual increase in interest in the area of morphology that has led to a virtual explosion in recent years. A somewhat less direct trajectory has been followed in the history of lexical semantics within generative grammar. After an initial burst of activity as part of the Generative Semantics/Interpretive Semantics debate of the late 1960’s, interest in general issues of lexical semantics flagged within the generative tradition, with the notable exception of the lines of work pursued by Bierwisch (1989, 1997) or Jackendoff (1983, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1996).¹