The structural properties of -ate derivatives

Apart from -ize derivatives, verbs in -ate are the most frequent overtly affixed verbs in our corpus of neologisms (72 types). While with -ize derivatives, the decision whether or not to count a form as a proper -ize formation was rather straightforward, the discerning of proper -ate formations turned out to be less clear-cut. As will be discussed in detail below, many forms display various phonological, morphological and semantic peculiarities, which calls into question their status as forms resulting from the suffixation of -ate. As already mentioned, all potentially doubtful cases were included in the corpus. First, in view of the regularity of -ize verbs the observed heterogeneity of -ate verbs is an interesting fact in itself and requires some explanation, which can only be given by also investigating the apparently problematic forms. Second, the heterogeneity of -ate verbs may have a bearing on the nature and representation of the suffix itself, or its derivatives. Hence, I did not exclude forms on the basis of a preconceived notion of what constitutes a properly suffixed -ate verb.