This thesis investigates the morphological status of COVID-related splinters. It examines whether the splinters cov(i)-, -demic, and quaran- are in the process of becoming combining forms, in...Show moreThis thesis investigates the morphological status of COVID-related splinters. It examines whether the splinters cov(i)-, -demic, and quaran- are in the process of becoming combining forms, in similar vein to forms like -(a)holic, a splinter which has developed into a combining form. Corpus-based investigation and feature-based analysis have shown that cov(i)- and -demic indeed behave like combining forms in word formation processes, while quaran- does not. However, an analysis of its lexical structure has indicated that it is not impossible for quaran- to become a combining form eventually.Show less
This thesis examines the status of whether in Generative Grammar. There is no consensus in the existing literature on the syntactic status of whether. Some linguists (Haegeman, 2006; Huddleston ...Show moreThis thesis examines the status of whether in Generative Grammar. There is no consensus in the existing literature on the syntactic status of whether. Some linguists (Haegeman, 2006; Huddleston & Pullum, 2002; Van Gelderen, 2013; among others) argue that whether is a complementiser, on a par with that and if. The example in (1) illustrates this position: (1) I don’t know whether/if I’ll go to the party. Other linguists (Newson et al, 2006; Radford, 1997, 2004, 2009; among others) have posited that whether is a wh-phrase, on a par with who and when. The example in (2) illustrates this position: (2) I don’t know whether/when I’ll go to the party. In this thesis, I aim to find out which of these positions is to be preferred: is whether a complementiser or a wh-phrase? I will attempt to answer this question through synchronic and diachronic research, using data from the existing literature. I will analyse the present-day syntactic behaviour of whether, its historical development and its morphology and critically evaluate the evidence for the two positions as presented in the existing literature.Show less
