The issue

This book deals with productivity as it affects morphological systems. Unfortunately, in the present state of morphological studies, this opening statement may mean different things to different people, even a definition of ‘productivity’ being a matter of some dispute. In order to develop a position from which conclusions can be drawn, it is thus necessary to begin from the very beginning, and gradually to construct a secure foundation of notions to support the enterprise. We can begin this construction by considering one fundamental definition of ‘productivity’.

Hockett (1958: 575) gives the label ‘productivity’ to that property of language which allows us to say things which have never been said before, the design feature that Chomsky (1965: 6) calls ‘creativity’. We do not have to go any further to see that this is an area in which there is, at least, some terminological difference of opinion. To add to the confusion, Chomsky (1965: 5) also talks about syntactic processes being ‘productive’ without making it clear whether ‘productive’ and ‘creative’ are the same or different things, while others, such as Lyons (1977: 76–78), distinguish carefully between the two terms, though not all scholars draw the same distinction.