In linguistic morphology, fossilization refers to two close notions. One is preserving of ancient linguistic features which have lost their grammatical functions in language. Another is loss of productivity of a grammatical paradigm (e.g. of an affix), which still remains in use in some words.[1]

Examples of fossilization include fossilized morphemes and fossil words.[1]

The term interlanguage fossilization refers to common types of errors made by most adult second-language learners, differing from the idiomatic usage of native-language learners.[2] These are erroneous generalizations or simplified language rules, which may be classified as phonological fossilization, lexical fossilization, syntactic fossilization and pragmatic fossilization.[3] These errors occur regardless of exposure to the language or education level.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b The Dictionary of Historical and Comparative Linguistics, by Robert Lawrence Trask, p. 125
  2. ^ Selinker, Larry (1972-01-01). "INTERLANGUAGE". 10 (1–4): 209–232. doi:10.1515/iral.1972.10.1-4.209. ISSN 1613-4141. ((cite journal)): Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. ^ Gao, Huan (2020). "Analysis of Fossilization Process of the Second Language Vocabulary from the Perspective of Memetics". Theory and Practice in Language Studies. 10 (10): 1326–1331.
  4. ^ Freeman, David; Freeman, Yvonne (2014). Essential Linguistics (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. pp. 71–72. ISBN 978-0-325-05093-5.
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