Plenary Abstract: Dr. Graeme Trousdale

While early work in construction grammar was concerned with syntactic structures, some more recent work has developed an account of morphology within a constructional framework (for example, Booij 2010). Diachronic variation in word-formation schemas has also been the focus on some recent research (for example, Hilpert 2013, Traugott and Trousdale 2013). In particular, this research has been concerned with changes in the frequency and productivity of particular word-formation schemas and micro-constructions over time. However, rather less has been said about the interplay of morphology and phonology in diachronic construction grammar. This talk presents some on-going research concerned with the variability in hypocoristic word-formation in English (see also Lappe 2007) and constructional approaches to morphology, and its relationship with phonology. In particular, it considers the relationship between morphological and phonological processes in hypocoristic formation, and how a constructional model may account for this, given the relative paucity of phonological analyses within a constructional framework. The talk is concerned with both synchronic and diachronic patterns in a constructional approach to prosodic morphology. This involves exploring the associations between more prototypical patterns in English hypocoristic formation (exemplified by Will, Willie) and more marginal ones (Wills, Willster) synchronically, including sociolinguistic and diatopic variability, as well as the loss (Robin, Janet) and gain (Shazza, Robbo) of particular patterns over time.

References
Booij, Geert. 2010. Constructional Morphology. Oxford: OUP.
Hilpert, Martin. 2013. Constructional Change in English: Developments in Allomorphy, Word-Formation and Syntax. Cambridge: CUP.
Lappe, Sabine. 2007. English Prosodic Morphology. Dordrecht: Springer.
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs and Graeme Trousdale. 2013. Constructionalization and Constructional Changes. Oxford: OUP.