Abstract

The French suffixation in -ier, -ière is a system inherited from Latin, which has been largely remodelled. One of its most striking features is the great number of different meanings that the derived nouns in -ier show. Contrary to what may seem, it is argued that the suffix -ier should not be considered as polysemic and that such a hypothesis even prevents to correctly describe the facts. The suffix is meaningless which means that compositionality is not an option to account for the meaning of the derivatives in -ier. It is proposed that this meaning be developed on the basis of inferences drawn from the semantics of their base name and regulated by the derivational series and families in which the derived Ns are included. Suffixes which supposedly manifest a true polysemy are discussed and it is shown that this is not a true polysemy, as is the case with lexemes, but an effect of the multiplicity of meaning obtained by lexeme formation patterns.