- Home
- ACADEMIC
- Linguistics
- Grammar, Syntax and Morphology
- Affixes and Derivatives across the Humanities and Social Sciences
Affixes and Derivatives across the Humanities and Social Sciences
For information on how we process your data, read our Privacy Policy
Thank you. We will email you when this book is available to order
You must sign in to add this item to your wishlist. Please sign in or create an account
Description
Providing a systematic approach to English academic writing for the Humanities and Social Sciences, this book examines the word-formation patterns typical of discourse across distinct academic disciplines.
Academic writing for research requires lexical sophistication, as it often addresses abstract concepts needing unique names, and a skilful use of complex derived/affixed words. The author provides data that allows for addressing the issues of expanding the learners' vocabulary, the development of vocabulary skills and the cultivation of derivational awareness in a targeted manner.
The book consists of eight chapters. The first two provide a general overview of written academic English for research and publication purposes across the Humanities and Social Sciences and present the whole derivational system of contemporary English. English affixes are introduced through syntactic categories, such as derived nouns, derived verbs and derived adjectives. Chapters 3 to 5 contain the results of analyses conducted with the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). In chapters 6 and 7, the methodology adopted shifts from automatic corpus search to manual data collection resulting from the close reading of specialist texts. Finally, chapter 8 shows how the analyses can be transferred to areas such as academic writing for research, writing for specific/professional purposes, creative writing, and translation.
Offering rich insights into English derivation, this book will benefit researchers engaged in the Humanities and Social Sciences and appeal to linguists specializing in morphological theory, as well as language teaching professionals and EAP curriculum designers.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Written Academic English
2. Derivational Morphology
3. COCA-based Affixal Statistics
4. COCA-based Lists of Derivatives
5. Discussion of the Results of COCA-based Research
6. Results of Close Reading
7. Discussion of the Results of Close Reading
8. Both Analyses Revisited
References
Index of Affixes
Product details
| Published | Mar 19 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 312 |
| ISBN | 9781350569027 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Illustrations | 10 bw illus |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
-
This is a genuinely intriguing book for readers interested in derived words formed by similar patterns in academic writing. Showing how such words are used by different communities of experts in humanities and social sciences, it proves that looking at morphologically complex words in these disciplines is truly thought-provoking.
Renáta Panocová, Professor of Linguistics, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, Slovakia
-
This landmark study reveals how derivational morphology shapes academic discourse. Twardzisz combines corpus analysis and close reading to examine affixal productivity, stability, and variation across disciplines. Rigorous and data-rich, it offers insights vital for linguists, applied linguists, and academic writing specialists while advancing theory and practice in morphology and corpus linguistics.
Grant Eckstein, Associate Professor, Brigham Young University, USA
























