Found:
Blocking
MORPHOLOGY: a process assumed in Aronoff (1976) by which the existence of
one word, which is listed in the mental dictionary, prevents the application of an
unproductive word formation rule, if that application would give rise to a complex
word having the same semantics as the already existing word.
EXAMPLE: the English suffixes -ity and -ness are very
similar, the difference being that the former is unproductive and the latter productive.
Both can be added to adjectives ending in -ous (curious:
curiosity: curiousness). However, if there already exists a noun
corresponding to the adjective in -ous as in the case of glorious:
glory, gracious: grace, furious: fury
etc., -ity affixation, but not -ness affixation, is disallowed:
*gloriosity: gloriousness, *graciosity: graciousness,
and *furiosity: furiousness.
LIT. | Aronoff, M. (1976) Spencer, A. (1991) |