People readily create and understand denominal verbs they have never heard before, as in to porch a newspaper and to Houdini one's way out of a closet. The meanings are best accounted for by a theory of interpretation that specifies what the verbs mean on particular occasions of their use. Our proposal is that their use is regulated by a convention: in using such a verb, the speaker means to denote the kind of state, event, or process that, he has good reason to believe, the listener can readily and uniquely compute on this occasion, on the basis of their mutual knowledge, in such a way that the parent noun (e.g. porch or Houdini) denotes one role in the state, event, or process, and the remaining surface arguments of the denominal verb denote others of its roles. This convention accounts for the meaning and acceptability of innovative verbs in various contexts; similar conventions may be needed to account for other innovative uses of language.
Language, a journal of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA), has appeared continuously since 1925 (4 issues per year). It publishes scholarly articles that report on original research covering the field of linguistics broadly, thus treating topics that include, among others, linguistic theory (phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics); language description; language in its social setting; the history of individual languages; language acquisition; experimentation on language perception, production, and processing; computational modeling of language; and the history of linguistics. Language also publishes research reports, discussion notes, and reviews and, beginning in 2013, has expanded to include digital content in four online-only sections: Perspectives, Phonological Analysis, Language and Public Policy, and Teaching Linguistics. Language also included the LSA Bulletin newsletter as a supplement from 1930 - 1969.
THE LINGUISTIC SOCIETY OF AMERICA (LSA) was founded in 1924 for the advancement of the scientific study of language. The Society serves its nearly 5,000 individual members, institutional subscribers and the larger linguistics community through its scholarly meetings, publications, linguistic institutes, professional development programs, and special activities designed to advance the discipline. An interest in linguistics is the only requirement for membership. The LSA works to educate and inform the broader public about the unique role of human language and the value of linguistic research in understanding that role.
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© 1979 Linguistic Society of America
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