Phonotactics , parsing and productivity

This paper argues that parsing and productivity are causally related, the more an affix is prone to parsing in speech perception, the more productive it is likely to be. We support this claim by demonstrating a strona relationship between junctural phonotactics and affix productivity. Affixes which tend to create phonotactic junctures which facilite parsing also tend to be more productive. We show that there is a strong statisticol relationship between factors relating to phonotactics, and those relating to productivity. We further show that factors relating to productivity are themselves highly inter-correlated. A Principal Components Analysis reveals that affixes can be assessed on two dimensions, which we label parsability nnd usefuiness. Both of these dimensions substantially contribute to overall productivity.