Derivational Morphology and Word Formation: Functional Directions in Contemporary English and Azerbaijani

Derivational Morphology and Word Formation: Functional Directions in Contemporary English and Azerbaijani | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Derivational Morphology and Word Formation: Functional Directions in Contemporary English and Azerbaijani Gulara Guliyeva, Narmina Aliyeva, Lea Oksanen This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8934163/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This article develops a function-driven, corpus-based account of derivational morphology restricted to English and Azerbaijani, two typologically distant systems that nonetheless converge under shared discourse pressures. We conceptualize word-formation as the coupling of morphotactic resources with communicative goals and operationalize productivity through a transparent index averaging normalized type frequency, novel-token ratio, and mean transparency. Using balanced written corpora spanning academic prose, administrative/professional documentation, and quality media, we extract derivatives by rule-guided filtering and manual verification, and annotate process (affixation, compounding, conversion, blending), semantic role (agentive, instrumental, evaluative, procedural), register, and transparency; inter-annotator reliability targets are met following joint training and adjudication. Results reveal complementary profiles: English favors conversion, agentive -er, and evaluative/adjectival -able, while blending clusters in media; Azerbaijani exhibits high-yield agentive and instrumental suffixation (-çı/-çi, -lıq/-lik), productive nominalizations (-ma/-mə, -etmə), and transparent NN compounds in professional discourse. Register-conditioned Functional Pathways—innovation, professionalization, evaluation, proceduralizing—predict the loci of stabilization for novel formations, and statistical tests (rank-based or parametric, with effect sizes and multiple-comparison control) substantiate cross-register contrasts without a necessary trade-off between productivity and transparency in the agglutinative system. The study refines English–Azerbaijani typological expectations, provides a replicable analytic workflow for higher-education settings, and offers practical guidance for terminology and role labeling in bilingual professional communication. Linguistics derivational morphology word-formation processes semantic transparency nominalization Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8934163","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":594903673,"identity":"90c40fe3-6685-4573-a36d-2913ad0f8856","order_by":0,"name":"Gulara Guliyeva","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA+ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYHACxgMJIIqZ+RiEf4AIPRAt7GxpJGgBk/w8ZsRpkXfPMTjwsM0msb+Z59uDj20Mcnw3Ehg//sCjxfDMG4MDiW1piTMO8243nNnGYCx5I4FZQgKflhk5IC2HjRkO826T5m1jSNxwI4FBwoCwlv/G8od5nkn/bWOoB2ph/pGAzy8SYC0H5AwO87BJM7YxJBjcSGCTOIBHiwHPs4IDCeeS5QwPs5kb9pyTMJx55mGbZQM+W9qTNz78UWbHI3f+8LMHP8ps5PmOJx++iS/EDEDxyMgG54OCihGfHUBbGoBaGP7gVTMKRsEoGAUjHQAA4CVTsM1uNZkAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0003-5401-3413","institution":"Baku Engineering University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Gulara","middleName":"","lastName":"Guliyeva","suffix":""},{"id":594904057,"identity":"71bbe1f2-8e8e-4ff4-82e6-431574313ebe","order_by":1,"name":"Narmina Aliyeva","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4983-2560","institution":"Baku Engineering University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Narmina","middleName":"","lastName":"Aliyeva","suffix":""},{"id":594904058,"identity":"ebbb93d1-7f52-487a-82ef-135f965240b4","order_by":2,"name":"Lea Oksanen","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5970-5000","institution":"Lahti University of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Lea","middleName":"","lastName":"Oksanen","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-02-21 14:38:40","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8934163/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8934163/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":103308737,"identity":"5678aefa-e860-46d9-b96b-3297460f3e5d","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-02-24 09:41:19","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":770444,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Manuscript11.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8934163/v1_covered_44e3e07d-5f5a-4224-a800-0c966e91ea88.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eDerivational Morphology and Word Formation: Functional Directions in Contemporary English and Azerbaijani\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"Baku Engineering University","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"derivational morphology, word-formation processes, semantic transparency, nominalization","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8934163/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8934163/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThis article develops a function-driven, corpus-based account of derivational morphology restricted to English and Azerbaijani, two typologically distant systems that nonetheless converge under shared discourse pressures. We conceptualize word-formation as the coupling of morphotactic resources with communicative goals and operationalize productivity through a transparent index averaging normalized type frequency, novel-token ratio, and mean transparency. Using balanced written corpora spanning academic prose, administrative/professional documentation, and quality media, we extract derivatives by rule-guided filtering and manual verification, and annotate process (affixation, compounding, conversion, blending), semantic role (agentive, instrumental, evaluative, procedural), register, and transparency; inter-annotator reliability targets are met following joint training and adjudication. Results reveal complementary profiles: English favors conversion, agentive -er, and evaluative/adjectival -able, while blending clusters in media; Azerbaijani exhibits high-yield agentive and instrumental suffixation (-\u0026ccedil;ı/-\u0026ccedil;i, -lıq/-lik), productive nominalizations (-ma/-mə, -etmə), and transparent NN compounds in professional discourse. Register-conditioned Functional Pathways\u0026mdash;innovation, professionalization, evaluation, proceduralizing\u0026mdash;predict the loci of stabilization for novel formations, and statistical tests (rank-based or parametric, with effect sizes and multiple-comparison control) substantiate cross-register contrasts without a necessary trade-off between productivity and transparency in the agglutinative system. The study refines English\u0026ndash;Azerbaijani typological expectations, provides a replicable analytic workflow for higher-education settings, and offers practical guidance for terminology and role labeling in bilingual professional communication.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Derivational Morphology and Word Formation: Functional Directions in Contemporary English and Azerbaijani","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-02-24 09:38:19","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8934163/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"f44bf4f9-2669-4a43-b196-87a13a790500","owner":[],"postedDate":"February 24th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":63433876,"name":"Linguistics"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-02-24T09:38:19+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-02-24 09:38:19","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8934163","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8934163","identity":"rs-8934163","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}