Classical combining forms: autonomy or fixed position

Abstract

Different studies of neoclassical compounding emphasise the fact that classical combining forms can occupy both the initial and final position, which clearly distinguishes them from affixes, which have a fixed position. This study seeks to ascertain whether most of the combining forms are truly this versatile in order to determine whether this is a really defining characteristic of these particles or, on the contrary, it only has a reduced case set. For this reason, we will analyse the formants who collect different lexicographic works in Catalan and compare how many cases appear in only one position and how many can occupy both. In this sense, this study is based on the lexicographic analysis of these units, which is complemented with a contrastive analysis of the position they occupy in the compounds in which they appear, because we sense that, in fact, only a limited number of cases have positional autonomy, so it is not a defining feature of combining forms. In addition, we will also analyse the way the variable units must be treated because they are now considered the same form, could also be considered in the background two combining forms, although having the same origin, they are different by the position and the syntactic and semantic function that they show in the different combinations.