THE DEGREE OF PRODUCTIVITY OF PREFIXES IN THE MODERN UZBEK LANGUAGE

Abstract

The article investigates the productivity of the prefixal formatives of modern Uzbek and proposes a graded, criterion-based scale in place of the undifferentiated inventories found in the descriptive literature. Productivity is understood in the sense established in general morphology as availability for new coinage, a property distinct from the number of types a pattern has already produced. Because a lemmatised and balanced corpus of modern Uzbek is not yet available, a multi-indicator ordinal procedure is adopted, resting on four diagnostics: dictionary type count, formation of hybrids on inherited Turkic bases, attestation in post-2000 terminology, and acceptability of nonce formations. The procedure yields four tiers, ranging from the fully productive be-, no-, ser-, ham-, anti-, mikro-, eko- and super- to the fossilised bo-, ba-, dil- and sar-. It is shown that type frequency alone misclassifies the fossilised group, which confirms the need for a multi-indicator approach. The principal constraint on productivity is identified as rivalry with the inherited suffixes -siz, -li and -dosh, which yield near-synonymous doublets resolved by functional specialisation rather than by elimination; etymological selectivity and stylistic marking act as secondary constraints. The emergent English-mediated formatives kiber-, onlayn-, veb- and smart- are identified as the principal growth zone of the system.