Inflection Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Dissociations in the recognition of specific classes of words have been documented in brain-injured populations. These include deficits in the recognition and production of morphologically complex words as well as impairments specific to particular syntactic classes such as verbs. However, functional imaging evidence for distinctions among the neural systems underlying these dissociations has been inconclusive. We explored the neural systems involved in processing different word classes in a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging study, contrasting four groups of words co-varying morphological complexity (simple, monomorphemic words vs complex derived or inflected words) and syntactic class (verbs vs nouns/adjectives). Subtraction of word from letter string processing showed activation in left frontal and temporal lobe regions consistent with prior studies of visual word processing. No differences were observed for morphologically complex and simple words, despite adequate power to detect stimulus specific effects. A region of posterior left middle temporal gyrus showed significantly increased activation for verbs. Post hoc analyses showed that this elevated activation could also be related to semantic properties of the stimulus items (verbs have stronger action associations than nouns, and action association is correlated with activation). Results suggest that semantic as well as syntactic factors should be considered when assessing the neural systems involved in single word comprehension.

- by
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- Semantics, Psycholinguistics, Speech perception, Magnetic Resonance Imaging

This paper aims at analysing a case of morphological variation in Italian, namely number inflection of two types of Italian compounds: Noun-Adjective (e.g. roccaNforteA ‘stronghold’) and Adjective-Noun (e.g. mezzaAlunaN ‘half-moon’) compounds. These compounds display both double inflection (e.g. cassePLfortiPL ‘safes’, doppiPLvetriPL ‘double glasses’), and external inflection (e.g. roccaSGfortiPL ‘strongholds’, doppioSGpettiPL ‘double-breasted’). Furthermore, in some cases the same compound shows both kinds of inflection, i.e. ‘overabundance’ (Thornton 2012). The analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data from a corpus of Contemporary Italian (i.e. itWaC) reveals that NA compounds do not show a consistent behavior in number inflection, since they are in general ancient and infrequent forms which originate in syntax and, in some cases, undergo lexicalization. On the other hand, AN compounds represent a morphological pattern mostly consisting of (sometimes still productive) series which display a transparent internal structure and a strong tendency to double inflection. Moreover, it appears from the examined data that although in most cases each compound seems to need an ad hoc explanation, frequency (especially for NA compounds) and belonging to a series (for AN compounds) can be considered as the most relevant factors for determining inflection.

Czech is a typical inflecting language. This brings numerous problems in accomodating the foreign names to Czech texts (both written and spoken), Chinese personal names being no exception to the rule. The present article begins with discussing the structure of Chinese names, explaining the components xing and mingzi. The names used by the Chinese living abroad (inverted order of components, usage of Western first names etc.) are treated as well. The ways the foreign personal names are accomodated to Chinese language context are briefly introduced. A substantial part of the article deals with the morphological accomodation of Chinese personal names to the Czech language context, namely declension of Chinese male names according to Czech nominal paradigms, and derivation of feminine surnames from masculine surnames adding the suffix -ová, which is partly questionable in case of Chinese female names. The problems of latinization are discussed (the options being the Chinese Pinyin alphabet, or the Standard Czech Transcription), as well as proper reading of names in spoken Czech context (the absolute phonetic accuracy is neither possible nor desirable). The article closes with the declension table for Chinese male names (the recommended forms are given both in Pinyin alphabet and in Standard Czech Transcription).

- by Hana Triskova
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- Chinese Language and Culture, Inflection, Mandarin Chinese, Personal Names
- by Greville G. Corbett
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- Languages and Linguistics, Russian, Gender, Morphology
- by Andrea Sims
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- Greek Language, Inflection, Morphology (Languages And Linguistics)
- by Ruth A . Berman
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- Reference, Spanish, Syntax, Inflection

Uninflectedness or indeclinability are a puzzling phenomenon in inflectional laguages. In this thesis the theoretical prerequisites for speaking of uninflectedness/indeclinability are first explored and then the regularities and circumstances of indeclinability in Slavonic languages are investigated, showing a continuum from East via West to South Slavic.

- by Prof. Niladri Sekhar Dash
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- Arabic, English, Sanskrit, Applied Linguistics

This chapter investigates the relation between syntheticity and analyticity in the history of Romanian. We empirically note that, against the traditional hypothesis that in the passage from Latin to Romance older synthetic forms were extensively replaced by novel analytic formations, there is a set of old Romanian periphrastic constructions which disappeared in the passage to modern Romanian, and we set our goal to provide an explanation for this less frequent linguistic change. By bringing to the fore data from old and modern Romanian, as well as dialectal Daco-Romanian material, we show that the facts are best explained by appealing to structural factors (i.e. the feature matrix of Romanian auxiliaries) rather than functional factors (competition between functionally equivalent forms, learnèd nature, or rare occurrence in usage).

- by Alexandru Nicolae and +1
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- Inflection, Romanian, Verbal Morphology, Periphrasis

For virtually as long as linguists have studied contact‐induced grammatical change, the borrowing of morphological formatives and patterns has been considered a relatively infrequent phenomenon—a view which is reflected in all well‐known borrowability scales. Yet all those scales have been constructed from limited data sets, thus producing rather intuitive generalizations, for example, that inflection is more resistant to borrowing than derivation. In reality, we do not have a precise idea of the global extent of the phenomenon. In particular, the borrowing of compounding techniques is a virtually uninvestigated topic. In recent years, linguists have more intensively pursued a line of research that identifies in the study of contact‐induced change a source of evidence for the theory of grammar and aims to show that different degrees of borrowability reflect fine‐grained distinctions between subcomponents of morphology. The ever‐growing availability of comprehensive grammars and detailed case studies has supplied an adequate empirical basis to reach this goal.

- by Francesco Gardani
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- Borrowing, Morphology, Inflection, Language contact

Affixation is a morphological process whereby a bound morpheme, an affix, is attached to a morphological base. Diachronically, the English word affix was first used as a verb and has its origin in Latin: affixus, past participle of the verb affigere, ad- ‘to’ + figere ‘to fix’. Affixation falls in the scope of Morphology where bound morphemes are either roots or affixes. Prefixes (affixes that precede the root) and suffixes (affixes that follow the root) are the most common types of affixes cross-linguistically. Affixes mark derivational (-er in teach-er) and inflectional (-s in teacher-s) changes, and affixation is the most common strategy that human languages employ for derivation of new words and word forms. However, languages vary in the ways they express the same semantics, and if in English the noun biolog-ist is derived from biology through the addition of the suffix -ist, in Russian (and other Slavic languages) the same derivation does not involve the addition of an affix but subtraction of form: biolog-ija ‘biology’ → biolog ‘biologist’. Most languages make an extensive use of affixes (most European, African, Australian, and Amerindian languages are of this type), whereas others (e.g., Vietnamese), hardly do. In languages that use affixes, there is a general preference for suffixes over prefixes.

- by Stela Manova
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- Languages and Linguistics, Phonology, Semantics, Syntax

In this chapter, we shall present a selection of the most relevant phenomena in inflectional verb morphology, i.e. where a debate about their nature has significantly evolved: with respect to the morphology-phonology interface, i.e. morphophonology, we shall basically highlight stem allomorphy. Throughout this chapter, syncretism will play a major role as a prime example and recurrent theme which elucidates the variety of interfaces pertaining to the inflection of verbs – as all important interfaces with morphology are involved: phonology, syntax, and semantics/pragmatics. Other instances of non-canonical morphology discussed include suppletion, periphrases, overabundance, and defectiveness. Lastly, we shall address the notion of the Autonomy of Morphology, i.e. the assumption of an autonomous morphomic level.

A key notion in understanding language is ‘possible word (lexeme)’. While there are lexemes that are internally homogeneous and externally consistent, we find others with splits in their internal structure (morphological paradigm) and inconsistencies in their external behavior (syntactic requirements). I first explore the characteristics of the most straightforward lexemes, in order to establish a point in the theoretical space from which we can calibrate the real examples we find. I then schematize the interesting phenomena that deviate from this idealization, including suppletion, syncretism, deponency, and defectiveness. Next I analyze the different ways in which lexemes are ‘split’ by such phenomena. I set out a typology of possible splits, along four dimensions: splits that are (i) based on the composition/feature signature of the paradigm versus those based solely on morphological form; (ii) motivated (following a boundary motivated from outside the paradigm) versus purely morphology-internal (‘morphomic’); (iii) regular (extending across the lexicon) versus irregular (lexically specified); (iv) externally relevant versus irrelevant: we expect
splits to be internal to the lexeme, but some have external relevance (they require different syntactic
behaviors).
I identify instances of these four dimensions separately: they are orthogonal, and therefore not
dependent on each other. Their interaction gives a substantial typology, and it proves to be surprisingly
complete: the possibilities specified are all attested. The typology also allows for the unexpected patterns of behavior to overlap in particular lexemes, producing some remarkable examples. Such examples show that the notion ‘possible word’ is more challenging than many linguists have realized.

- by Greville G. Corbett
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- Languages and Linguistics, Morphosyntax, Morphology, Linguistics
- by Nanna Fuhrhop
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- Combinatorics, Morphology, Linguistics, Inflection

Auf der Grundlage der morphologischen Natürlichkeitstheorie wird in diesem Band versucht, Phänomene des Sprachwandels in der polnischen Nominalflexion hinsichtlich ihrer Gerichtetheit und Systembedingungen in einen erklärenden Kontext zu stellen. Die Arbeit setzt sich zum Ziel, nach Möglichkeit sämtliche flexivischen Wandelphänomene aus dem genannten Bereich zu berücksichtigen. Dadurch kann die diachrone Erklärungskraft der Natürlichkeitstheorie am Beispiel einer Einzelsprache bewertet werden. Erklärung im Sprachwandel ist allerdings nur zu erreichen, wenn die Verhältnisse in genetisch verwandten Sprachen ebenfalls berücksichtigt werden. Insofern weist die Perspektive dieser slavistischen Arbeit weit über den polonistischen Rahmen hinaus.

This current study aimed to investigate the influence of derivational and inflectional morphological awareness on the writing of undergraduate students studying English as a Foreign Language. They were divided in to two groups and each group comprised 200 advanced EFL learners. Explicit morphological instructions were given to group two in the classroom for full one semester whereas group one wasn't given any kind of morphological knowledge. To collect data, exactly the same lists of word-formation on different morphological processes and their use in the writing samples were administered to both the groups. The main objective of this research was to examine the correlation between the morphological awareness and the EFL writing after testing learners' reflection on word-formation. Then it also tried to explore the difference between their performances to check whether the morphological instructions improved their writing or not. The findings stated that group two students always performed far better than group one and showed a strong understanding of word-formation structure while applying and manipulating in the morphological-instructed tasks. The formulated hypothesis-the teaching of explicit morphemic rules improves not only morphological awareness to a large extent but also grammatical, intralingual, lexical and syntactic awareness that results to enhance collaboratively EFL writing competence. A promising contribution of this current study to pedagogy was that explicit teaching of morphology improved writing to a concrete, large extent and revealed clearly that it must be introduced to EFL learners from the early education so that their writing skill can be developed effectively.

- by Arab World English Journal (AWEJ)
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- Inflection, Derivation, Suppletion, EFL writing

The article discusses a regional variety of Polish spoken in Kiyv preserved in the Polish-Latin panegyrics composed by Stefan Jaworski (1656(8)–1722) to venerate Warłam Jasiński. The analysis aims at drawing a catalogue of phonetic, inflectional, word formation and syntactic idiolectal features of this variety as juxtaposed against the 17th century standard Polish. The analysis reveals the poet’s fluency in a language that was foreign (second) to him. This fluency also covers the poet’s skill in using varietal forms to achieve artistic aims. The regional forms subject to the study often display closeness to the ones in the Borderland variety of Polish, yet with an idiolectal inflectional features,
e.g.: a large number of participles ending in -owszy or frequent cases of l/ł alternation.

- by JOLANTA KLIMEK-GRĄDZKA
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- Phonetics, Inflection, Polish dialects, History of Polish language
- by Peter Arkadiev and +2
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- Morphology, Inflection, Linguistic Typology, Language contact

This study is devoted to the problem of the interrelationship between Turkic syŋar ‘direction’ and jak ~ jan ‘side’ on the one hand, and the Khakas, Shor and Oyrot directive suffixes -jar(y) ~ -sar(y) ~ -sāra, and so on, on the other. -- The paper seeks to answer four questions: (1) Are jak ‘side’ and jan id. two derivatives ultimately of the same root *√ja?; (2) How do jak ‘side’ and sak id. compare?; (3) If it is true that jar, sar < *jagar, *sagar, how, then, should the final vowel in jary, sara, etc. be explained?; (4) How do Old Tkc. syŋar ‘direction’ (also used as a directive postposition) and sar ~ jar compare?

In spite of the central position that the concept word has among the basic units of language structure, there is no consensus as to the definition of this concept (or network of related concepts). Many perspectives are needed in order to gain even a schematic idea of what words are, how words may be composed, and what relationships there might be between words. Many linguists have put forward frameworks for describing the domain of morphology, each framework proceeding from its author's assumptions, prioritizing distinct formal and functional dimensions, and therefore entering into de facto competition. This book addresses the needs of the language scholar/student who finds her/himself engaged in morphological analysis and theorizing. It offers a guide to existing approaches, revealing how they can either complement or compete with each other and ranks them on multiple continua.

- by Thomas W Stewart
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- Languages and Linguistics, Morphosyntax, Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics

In this paper, I will discuss the penultimate stage of grammaticalization: the stage of affixhood. This stage has not been the object of much study, probably because inflectional affixes are considered to be the most grammaticalized of elements. Having thus reached the very end of a one-way street, they cannot develop any further, and the only remaining change for them would seem to be loss. If however the history of some of these inflections is examined more closely, it will be seen that loss is not the only option. Using diachronic evidence from Swedish, I will show that inflectional endings may be maintained as “less cumulative” inflections, or even degrammaticalize into a derivational suffix or a clitic. These developments were made possible by the loss of inflectional case, which rendered many endings redundant and hence available for other purposes. Such changes will turn out to be paradigm examples of Lass’s concept of exaptation. Finally, I will address the question of why degrammaticalization changes are so rare and how they could be integrated into the grammaticalization framework.

- by Muriel Norde
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- Historical Linguistics, Grammaticalization, Inflection, Derivation

The paper is devoted to the analysis of the string kole in contemporary Polish. Among other occurrences, the word is an element of the following phrases: {coś} kłuje/kole kogoś w zęby (‘sth is not to sb’s taste’, lit. sth stings sb’s teeth), {coś} kłuje/kole kogoś w oczy (‘sth irritates sb’, lit. sth stings sb’s eyes). In the Grammatical Dictionary
of Polish Language (sgjp.pl), kole is treated as non-inflected, isolated form that appears solely in the proverbial phrase "prawda w oczy kole" (‘the truth hurts’, lit. the truth stings eyes). Verification of this claim is the
aim of the paper. In the first part of the article, historical outline of the analysed item is presented and in the second part, contemporary usages found in corpora and dictionaries are scrutinized. The analysis proves
that there are more verbal forms based on the same stem as "kole" in contemporary Polish, in both phraseological and non-phraseological contexts. Thus, it should not be treated as an isolated item. The authors suggest that forms of the type kole/kol should be treated as variants of the type "kłuje"/"kłuj". Neither in the system of language, nor in the language usage, one can find sufficient evidence for a full paradigm alternative to contemporary prevailing type "kłuje"/"kłuj", therefore one cannot assume existence of a distinct verbal lexeme.

- by Monika Czerepowicka and +1
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- Morphology, Linguistics, Inflection, Inflection, Morphology
- by Anna Roussou
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- Cognitive Science, Control, Morphology, Linguistics

The author argues that the dative of the nouns denoting locations differ from the dative of the nouns denoting persons.

- by Stanimir Rakic
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- Serbian, Inflection

The author uses a 'canonical' approach to offer a new perspective on the complex phenomenon of inflectional classes. This means extrapolating from what there is to what there might be, in order to define the theoretical space into which real instances fit. To do this, the author proposes eight criteria, grouped under two overarching principles. These are: I. distinctiveness: canonical inflectional classes are as clearly distinct as possible; and II. independence: the distribution of lexical items over canonical inflectional classes is unmotivated. The author investigates the various deviations from these principles, by considering in turn the more detailed criteria which exemplify them. While one might reasonably expect that 'canonical inflectional class' is an ideal without exemplars, the author finds an example which comes remarkably close to canonical.

- by Greville G. Corbett
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- Languages and Linguistics, Typology, Morphosyntax, Morphology

Este artículo aborda la flexión verbal con base en los conceptos introducidos en el modelo morfológico basado en palabras; en específico, el modelo de Word and Paradigm. Se propone una metodología para el análisis de la flexión verbal del español. Para esto, tomamos únicamente la primera conjugación del español. El análisis aquí establecido se basa en determinar partes principales que permitan predecir los paradigmas verbales de primera conjugación. Mostramos que a partir de unas cuantas partes principales es posible predecir el paradigma completo de una forma verbal. Asimismo discutimos los fenómenos de la competencia entre esquemas donde se presenta cambio de acento (como en las formas “hablemos” y “háblemos”) así como las diptongaciones /o/ → /ue/ y /e/ → /ie/ que responden a un cambio en la parte principal. Finalmente, se muestran las ventajas que el modelo basado en palabras muestra en el análisis de la flexión.

- by Ramón F Zacarías Ponce de León and +1
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- Inflection, Verbal Inflectional Morphology, Word and Paradigm Morphology, Inflectional Morphology
- by Larry Hyman
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- Cognitive Science, Phonology, Comparative Linguistics, Natural History

This is a survey of the domain of morphological borrowing complemented with a case-study of contact-induced phenomena in the domain of verbal prefixes in Baltic, Slavic and neighboring languages. Section 2 presents a concise overview of the main divisions and analytical problems of morphological borrowing, focusing on the distinction between matter borrowing and pattern borrowing, on the one hand, and on the borrowing of different types of morphology (e.g. derivation vs. inflection, affixes vs. processes etc.). Section 3 further illustrates these issues on the data of the borrowing phenomena involving verbal prefixes in Baltic and Slavic, such as borrowing of individual prefixes from Slavic into Baltic dialects and of whole systems of prefixes from Slavic into Romani and Istro-Romanian and from Baltic into Livonian, or cases of pattern replication involving verbal prefixes in Lithuanian, Yiddish and Romani. Borrowability of the Slavic and Baltic verbal aspect expressed by means of prefixation is also discussed, and it is shown that the aspectual values of borrowed prefixes are never exact copies of their counterparts in the source languages.

- by Peter Arkadiev and +1
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- Slavic Languages, Morphology, Romani Studies, Grammaticalization

In Slavic languages, as in many other languages, the noun for 'person' has a suppletive paradigm. Yet, as this study shows, in West Polesian (East Slavic) the noun 'person' is a typological outlier not only within Slavic but also cross-linguistically because it combines three stems with a very complex distribution. This paper looks for any regularities in the distribution of these suppletive stems, their cognates among other Slavic languages and how speakers use them in free texts. This survey provides novel insights into suppletion. First, suppletion involving more than two stems is typologically uncommon but the West Polesian noun 'person' combines three. Second, against any expectation of regularity for the sake of learnability, free-text data show that speakers do not distribute the stems homogeneously. Third, notwithstanding the diglossic situation in Western Polesie, the inter-and intra-speaker variation in the choice of stem does not seem particularly conditioned by sociolinguistic variables such as gender, age or social class. In sum, this corpus survey of the suppletive stems of 'person' in West Polesian and Slavic illustrates a rare case in morphological typology where there is a three-stem suppletion combined with overabundance and a vast amount of variation across speakers.

- by Stela Manova
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- Morphology, Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics, Inflection
- by Agnieszka Kaliska
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- Syntax-Semantics Interface, Inflection, Adverbs, Adverbials

L'évolution de la morphologie verbale des langues romanes se joue sur deux axes : l'aspect conservateur, d'une part, car la morphologie verbale romane se conçoit comme concinuatrice de celle du latin et les irrégularités du radical sont celles du latin (p. ex. les formes du verbe être au présent de l'indicatif en français standard). L'aspect novateur, d'autre part, avec l'émergence de nouveaux temps synthétiques comme le futur et le conditionnel et le développement de nouvelles irrégularités du radical qui sont dues d'abord aux changements phonétiques, puis à des réfections analogiques. Enfin, on a affaire au syncrétisme qui devient la force majeure structurant tout le système verbal dans le domaine d'oïl (et aussi, mais moins prononcé, en francoprovençal et dans des dialectes gallo-italiens et rhéto-romans). Ce phénomène est presque absent du système verbal latin mais présent dans la quasi-totalité des langues romanes à des degrés très inégaux.

- by Marc-Olivier Hinzelin
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- Morphology, Inflection, Occitan Language, Limousin

This paper provides a detailed description of inflectional classes of verbs based on TAM-marking morphology in Coatec Zapotec. This description is then used as a standard for comparison with other Zapotec languages spoken in the Southern Sierra region of Oaxaca, Mexico, which is considered by the author to be a diffusion zone. A comparison of 10 varieties belonging to four languages finds that the most diverse TAM-marking systems are found in the western part of the Southern Sierra while the system of inflectional classes greatly simplifies as one moves eastward. Contact and diffusion are considered to be crucial in the retention or loss of conservative features and the spread of innovations such as nasalization of certain prefixes.

- by Rosemary Beam de Azcona
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- Morphology, Inflection, Fieldwork on Zapotecan languages, Zapotec

Diese Studie stellt zunächst den von Greville Corbett ausgearbeiteten Ansatz der kano-nischen Flexionsmorphologie als Instrument für die Bewertung flexivischer Komplexi-tät vor. Die umfassende Typologie der Komplexitätsverhältnisse, die in Corbett (2015) am Beispiel unterschiedlichster Sprachen ausgearbeitet ist, wird im Folgenden auf das Flexions system nur einer Sprache angewendet, und zwar auf die obersorbische Schriftsprache im Vergleich mit der niedersorbischen. Die beeindruckende Vielfalt von Komplexitätsverhältnissen, die Corbetts Modell bezeichnet, ist sogar innerhalb einer slawi-schen Einzelsprache nachzuweisen.

- by Thomas Menzel
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- Slavic Linguistics, Inflection, Canonical Typology, Canonical Approach

The paper presents the process of shaping of the canon of morphological terminology in Polish grammatical literature published in years 1817–1939. The author shows the evolution of the conceptual system of inflection, while paying attention to gradual distinction between inflection and word formation terminology, and to those who created and popularized terms that function to this day. The final part of the paper reflects on the consequences of the overlap of tradition and contemporary terminological decisions, as the analysed examples show that, within Polish grammatical terminology, there co-exist separate subsystems connected with linguistic descriptions created in different methodologies and different times. The result is ambiguity of certain terms, existence of different terms for the same notion, and frequently also fuzziness of definitions. Contemporary researchers, seeking to make terminological systems more precise, must also remember about the rules of commonness and of consolidation of terms within the language, with respect to specific notions.

The article discusses the borderland between nominal case inflection and adverb derivation in Estonian. Estonian grammars customarily present a case system consisting of fourteen cases. The present article takes a step outside the traditional paradigm. The main focus of the study is on certain formations traditionally regarded as denominal adverbs. The previously underdescribed formations in -ti have a distributive meaning (e.g., hommikuti ‘in the mornings’, riigiti ‘across countries; by country’, keeliti ‘across languages’). Based on data drawn from billions of words of modern written Estonian on the Internet, the distributive in -ti turns out to be a rather productive morphological category. Special attention is given to the syntactic properties of these formations, as the data show that the distributive differs starkly from ordinary adverbs. It is argued that the distributives are not fully denominal forms, but rather show many features characteristic of nouns: they may be accompanied by postmodifying relative clauses as well as genitives, adjectival modifiers and pronominal determiners. The article shows that the inflection–derivation interface of the Estonian noun is far from clear-cut. On the basis of the findings presented in this study, it is proposed that our understanding of the Estonian case system can be advanced by introducing a concept of “dwarf case” in analogy with dwarf planets, which are members of the Solar System and share many features with planets despite not being proper planets in and of themselves. The Estonian distributive in -ti can therefore be characterized as a “dwarf case”, an entity that comes quite close to being potentially considered the fifteenth case of the language.

- by Jussi Ylikoski
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- Syntax, Uralic Linguistics, Estonian Language, Inflection

This volume advances our understanding of how word structure in terms of affix ordering is organized in the languages of the world. A central issue in linguistic theory, affix ordering receives much attention amongst the research community, though most studies deal with only one language. By contrast, the majority of the chapters in this volume consider more than one language and provide data from typologically diverse languages, some of which are examined for the first time. Many chapters focus on cases of affix ordering that challenge linguistic theory with such phenomena as affix repetition and variable ordering, both of which are shown to be neither rare nor typical only of lesser-studied languages with unstable grammatical organization, as previously assumed. The book also offers an explicit discussion on the non-existence of phonological affix ordering, with a focus on mobile affixation, and one on the emergence of affix ordering in child language, the first of its kind in the literature. Repetitive operations, undesirable in many theories, are frequent in early child language and seem to serve as trainings for morphological decomposition and affix stacking. Thus, the volume also raises important questions regarding the general architecture of grammar and the nature and side effects of our theoretical assumptions.

- by Stela Manova
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- Languages and Linguistics, Phonology, Semantics, Slavic Languages

The position of the appreciative/evaluative derivation within morphology is exceptional, because, although the limited information that grammars and dictionaries reveal as for its formation and use, speakers freely use evaluative forms in familiar and informal contexts and often create new words without the restraints traditionally imposed by the grammatical norms. As we will see, although the shape of these forms presents some variation, it complies with some well-defined constraints. This paper presents new data in this field collected through traditional corpora and internet, with a two-fold aim. The first purpose is to thoroughly examine the morphological characteristics of the appreciative suffixation in Catalan, with especial reference to the categories that are usually ignored in the literature (i.e., evaluative forms derived from categories other than nouns, adjectives and verbs). The second purpose has to do with the distributional restrictions that traditional words and new words show with respect to the endings they allow, in order to identify which true nominal inflectional marks Catalan has.

- by Maria-Rosa Lloret
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- Catalan Studies, Catalan Language, Romance philology, Morphology
- by Muriel Norde
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- Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Morphology, Cognitive Linguistics

In intuitive terms, the micromorphology hypothesis is the hypothesis that an affix can itself be morphologically complex. This is a widespread assumption in descriptive accounts of the morphology of individual languages; yet, with only the rarest exceptions, morphological theory has tended to reject this hypothesis, most often tacitly. My objective here is therefore threefold. ¶ I begin by characterizing the micromorphology hypothesis in more precise terms, exemplifying it with the analysis of nominal inflection in Noon (Niger-Congo/Atlantic; Senegal) presented by Soukka 2000 and showing that in a rule-based conception of morphology, this hypothesis entails an operation of rule composition similar (though not identical) to the operation of function composition in mathematics. ¶ I propose an inferential-realizational morphological theory that implements the micromorphology hypothesis by incorporating the notion of rule composition. I demonstrate its basic properties with regard to the Noon evidence. ¶ I survey several kinds of evidence that favor the conciliation of morphological theory with the micromorphology hypothesis and therefore necessitate a rather profound rethinking of the principles of morphotactics. I discuss a number of apparent morphotactic anomalies that can be readily accounted for by assuming that the default patterns of interaction among a language's morphological rules can be overridden by the composition of two or more rules.

- by Gregory Stump
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- Inflection, Morphotactics

Le DELAP est un dictionnaire phonémique du français, représentation systématique de la prononciation de 620 000 formes et de certaines de leurs variantes phonétiques. L'outil informatique permet de gérer et ensemble de données. Les dictionnaires phonétiques usuels poursuivent de tout autres buts : destinés à des lecteurs humains non spécialistes, ils sont de taille limitée, comportent des informations implicites et ne peuvent pas être entièrement systématiques.