Prefixaçâo e composiçâo: fronteiras de um contínuo

Abstract

This text examines the criteria invoked to differentiate prefixes and  constituents of composition, applied to contemporary Portuguese data. We claim that the more relevant criteria in terms of typology of constituents and processes are the lexicality of the constituent, its categorial and morphological specification, its selectional restrictions in terms of lexical and morphological compatiblities, and their semantic and distributional dimensions; prosodic structure is less relevant. We argue that these criteria support a scalarity of processes involving prefixation and composition.