Towards a Morphological Theory: The Case of Arabic Broken and Sound Plurals (original) (raw)

2014

Abstract

The paper discusses the Arabic Broken plural and the Sound plural (BP and SP henceforth) as two instances of two distinct morphological processes involving different characteristics and mechanisms. I propose an analysis based on how morphology operates in the lexicon and the syntax and provide data from Arabic and Hebrew. I argue that the BP is derived lexically as one atomic complex word while the SP involves a two-unit merger deriving a non-atomic word in the syntax. Evidence follows from the lexical access, morphological productivity, semantic distinctions of number and the lexical representation of BP and SP. Atomicity plays a crucial role in the distinction of morphology in the lexicon and the syntax not just in Arabic morphology but also cross-linguistically as illustrated by the Hebrew diminutives which add further evidence to the effect of atomicity in the morphological analysis of words.

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