On Eugenio Coserius Theory of Word Formation

Between 1965 and 1982 Eugenio Coseriu published a series of investigations on word formation processes. In a functional perspective, he developed an innovative proposal, which moved away from traditional models and was not adequately taken into account in lexicological studies, neither in those of his time nor in those of later years. In this contribution, I intend to resume the fundamental aspects of this model, which maintains its validity and originality: in Coseriu's theory of word formation the three levels of the system, the norm and the usage interact strictly, so that both the reasons of the system and the creativity of the speakers are adequately taken into account.