/ instituut voor de Nederlandse taal / Taalportaal
bibliography glossary about
  • Dutch
  • Frisian
  • Saterfrisian
  • Afrikaans
Show all
    -iseer
    quickinfo

    -iseer /i'zer/ (in infinitive forms: -iseren) is a non-Germanic stress-bearing suffix that attaches to adjectives and nouns, mostly of non-Germanic origin, to create verbs. There are very few –iseer verbs with Germanic bases, an example is veralgemeniseren to generalize, from algemeen general and the prefix ver-. The suffix is a variant of –eer (infinitive -eren), which appears in words such as produceren to produce.

    The meaning of -iseer is causative cause to be (like) or endow with.

    Examples (1) have adjectival bases, examples (2) are formed from nominals.

    1
    a. legaliseren
    to legalize
    b. stabiliseren
    to stabilize
    c. egaliseren
    to level
    2
    a. magnetiseren
    to magnetize
    b. standardiseren
    standardize
    c. symboliseren
    symbolize

    A special case is gemotoriseerd motorized which is only available as a past participle and means something like endowed with an engine (e.g. gemotoriseerd verkeer motorized vehicles).

    readmore
    [+]Morphosyntactic properties and subcategorization

    -iseer is a verbalizing suffix.

    Verbs with –iseer are mostly transitive, but there are intransitive forms such as psychologiseren psychologize, acclimatiseren acclimatize or uitkristalliseren crystallize (out), take shape. The intransitive verbs often have an inchoative rather than a causative meaning: become (like) rather than cause to be (like).

    [+]Stratum, input and productivity

    -iseer takes as input non-Germanic adjectives and nouns. The very few –iseer verbs with Germanic bases may be perceived as mannered, the only commonly used example is veralgemeniseren generalize.

    Inputs preferrably have a suffix such as –aal or –iel (verbaliseren verbalize, stabiliseren stabilize) or stem extensions such as at- or et- (systematiseren systematize, theoretiseren theorize). Sometimes, the base is a bound root morpheme, as in polemiseren polemicize (where there is no independent word *polem).

    The suffix has very limited productivity; new formations are exceptional. An exception are geographical names that easily form adjectives with -iseer: balkaniseren to balkanize. Yet, new –iseer verbs enter the language as borrowings or internationalisms. Equivalent foreign suffixes, e.g. English -ize, are nativized. An example is randomiseren randomize.

    [+]Morphological potential

    -iseer verbs can be nominalized as –isering or –isatie: systematisering systematization, organisatie organisation. In the latter case, the nominalizing suffix partly replaces the verbal suffix, which shows that the internal structure of the verb is recognized. Where both forms are available, there may be a slight difference in meaning: -isering focuses on the proces, while -isatie ambiguously refers to the process or the result (compare stabilisering stabilizing and stabilisatie stabilization).

    References
      About this article
      Author(s): Jenny Audring
      Category: Dutch Morphology
      Keywords: derivationverbalsuffix
      Version: 1.0, January 2016
      Version history:
      version editor(s) date remarks
      1.0 Jenny Audring January 2016
      printreport errorcite
      Jump to:
      X