A descriptive framework for evaluative morphology resources

A thorough review of contemporary evaluative morphology (EM) research shows that descriptions of the EM resources available to languages tend to be unsystematic and lacking in thoroughness, given the absence of an established descriptive framework. The aim of this study is to propose a framework for the systematic description of the EM resources of natural languages. The discussion is structured according to various productivity indicators attested in the construction of evaluative forms (EVALs). The study reviews a previous proposal by Körtvélyessy (2015a), addressing some perceived shortcomings and expanding its scope. Notably, the proposed framework includes a description of a) all morphological processes involved in EVAL-formation, b) the availability of different word classes as bases in EVAL-formation, c) a set of semantic features for the dynamic interpretation of EVALs, and d) the recursive possibilities of evaluative markers. Aside from the description of EM resources, the proposed framework also suggests procedures for their numerical quantification, to obtain measurable indicators that may be further used in contrastive, typological and areal EM research.