The Suffix -ster in Present-Day English

A Usage-Based and Network Model Account

Bibliographic Data

ID6032022
AuthorsK Aaron Smith (0000-0001-5600-1043, Illinois State University), Zachary Dukic (0009-0001-8751-9029, Illinois State University)
Year2025
Volume100
Issue2
Pages208-230
Publication date2025-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Speech (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-1283 • E-ISSN: 1527-2133
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00031283-11466482
OpenAlexW4400485069
LanguageEN
References cited25

In this article, the authors provide an analysis of the present-day distribution of the -ster suffix in English and account for that distribution through the diachronic forces that shaped it. Taking a constructional approach reveals that words with the -ster suffix in Middle English constituted a semantically coherent set in so far as the items in that set mostly referred to professions. In the latter part of the first half of the Modern English period, they find a renaissance of -ster usage, albeit with a semantic shift toward the identification of a human agent (usually male) involved in activities that were subversive, illicit, or even criminal (e.g., gangster). The authors sketch out a model in which certain of the constructions stand as central members, or exemplars, which then serve as analogical bases to which other constructions with -ster are extended. They argue that the cumulative effect of the central exemplars of this set strengthens the representation of -ster as formally independent and imbues it with the emergent meaning of subversion, illicitness, or criminality. The result of these diachronic process is a very healthy productivity of -ster in later modern English and a distribution across several domains

Linguistics · Suffix · Computer Science · Lexicography and Language Studies · Natural Language Processing Techniques · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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