Concept
Productivity (linguistics)
Overview
In linguistics, productivity is the degree to which speakers of a language use a particular grammatical process, especially in word formation. It compares grammatical processes that are in frequent use to less frequently used ones that tend towards lexicalization. Generally the test of productivity concerns identifying which grammatical forms would be used in the coining of new words: these will tend to only be converted to other forms using productive processes.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Related ideas
Place in the tradition
Part of Language.
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