Semantics and Word Formation

Features the integration into English of the five nominal suffixes -ment, -ance, -ation, -age and -al, which entered Middle English via borrowings from French, and which now form abstract nouns by attaching themselves to various base categories, as in cord/cordage or adjust/adjustment.

Cynthia Lloyd graduated in English from the University of Bristol and gained a research MA by thesis on connections between language and literature in early modern English. In 1991 she read for an MA in linguistics at the University of York, and in 2005 completed a PhD in the field of word formation at the University of Leeds. She has taught Middle English for the MA programme at Bristol University, humanities courses for the Open University in Bristol and Manchester, and English language at the Universities of Benghazi and Kuwait. She has previously published articles in the field of French suffixes in English.