Ebook: Contemporary Morphological Theories: A User's Guide

Discover and test some of the many ways linguists describe patterns among and within words

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.

• Provides a ‘one-stop’ reference to introduce major descriptive frameworks that are otherwise widely distributed in competing threads in the literature
• Frameworks include A-Morphous Morphology, Autolexical Syntax/Automodular Grammar, Categorial Morphology, Construction Morphology, Distributed Morphology, Lexeme–Morpheme Base Morphology, Lexical Morphology and Phonology/Stratal Optimality Theory, Minimalist Morphology, Natural Morphology, The Network Model, Network Morphology, Paradigm Function Morphology, Prosodic Morphology, Word-based Morphology and Word Syntax
• Ranks competing theories along multiple continua using a table of comparison
• Includes case studies on Scottish Gaelic initial consonant mutation in nouns, Georgian verb agreement and Sanskrit gerund formation