THE STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SYLLABIC STRUCTURE AND THE PRODUCTIVITY RATE OF DERIVATIONAL VERB AFFIXATION IN PERSIAN

Derivation is a process in which by adding a derivational affix a new word is produced. This process has been in the center of linguists’ attention for ages and more referred to as an inflectional or morphosyntactic process. When studying the process of derivation, examining the productivity rate of a derivational affix (number of words produced by that affix) is of a great importance. This paper is based on the hypothesis that the syllabic structure and morphological factors affect the productivity rate of an affix. The relationship between the syllabic structure and the production rate of derivational verb suffixes is also examined. Among the total twenty derivational verb suffixes which exist in Persian language, seven are of the highest productivity rate, all of which begin with a vowel. It is concluded that the existence of a vowel at the initial position of the syllabic construction of an affix is the factor involved with the productivity of that affix in Persian language. Nevertheless, the morphological rules are also involved with the selection of these suffixes. A study of the nucleus of syllables in these suffixes also indicate that the two back vowels /a/ and /e/ are the most frequent in the nucleus position of these derivational suffixes; in other words, the syllabic structure and the phoneme layout of a suffix acts crucially in the productivity rate of these suffixes. Based on The results and statistics achieved, there is a close relationship between the syllabic structure of an affix and its productivity rate.