Abstract

The denominal use of the agent suffix -er is often overshadowed by the highly productive deverbal use of the suffix and its portrayals in the research literature have tended to be incomplete or contradictory, often concluding that denominal derivation is a minor or even unproductive role of -er. Contemporary usage data show denominal -er to have several productive niches, including attachment to native complex idiomatic bases (e.g. Goldwäscher, Rollenspieler) and, most notably, attachment to English bases (e.g. Boarder, Spammer). As such, while less widely used than its deverbal counterpart, denominal -er is shown to be increasing its sphere of use and importance in a manner not yet reported in the literature.