This study aims to explore the morphological distribution and productivity of noun-forming suffixes - ity and - ness in regard to etymological data and corpus-based approaches, and to analyze their morphophonological properties by agreement- and prosody-based constraints. The data show that the Latinate suffix - ity and the Germanic suffix - ness attach to the adjectival bases remarkably, which have the corresponding lexical origin to them respectively and stress shift occurring only in - ity derivatives, while word formation processes of the derivatives differ depending on derived bases and underived bases, and also there are exceptional derivatives combined with both - ity and - ness. These could be significantly examined by agreement and prosodic constraints AGREEG-ness, AGREEL-ity, and σ́ σσ# in the ascendancy, to which the derivative-specific constraint L-ity,-ness would add. The results pertinently clarify the morphophonological distribution based on etymology and comparative productivity of - ity and - ness formations under constraints.
Mi-Sook Park (Sun,) studied this question.