Morphological theory and the morphology of English / Jan Don.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Don, Jan, 1963- author.

Series:

Edinburgh textbooks on the English language. Advanced

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Grammar, Comparative and general--Morphology.

Grammar, Comparative and general.

English language--Morphology.

English language.

Physical Description:

ix, 204 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, [2014]

Summary:

Books in this series provide readers with a detailed description and explanation of key areas of English Language study. The authors presuppose a basic working knowledge of the topic and explore aspects of the linguistics of English for an intermediate or advanced student readership. This introduction to morphology offers graduate students and advanced undergraduate students in linguistics an accessible entry point to the primary literature in the field of morphology. The book specifically focuses on generative theories of morphology. It offers a thorough introduction to the many issues which have shaped the field of morphology over the last few decades and in doing so prepares students for further reading and research in the subject. Topics covered include derivation versus inflection, lexical versus syntactic models of morphology, synthetic compounds and storage versus computation. Each chapter provides the reader with suggestions for further reading as well as exercises designed to test understanding of this complex and fascinating field. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Knowledge of words 1

1.1 Introduction: Simplex words 1

1.2 Complex words 5

1.3 Phonological and semantic idiosyncrasies in word-formation 7

1.4 The building blocks of words 10

1.5 Allomorphy 16

1.6 Inflection 21

1.7 Compounds 24

1.8 The limits of morphology 26

1.9 Preview 27

Exercises 29

Further reading 30

2 Word-formation in the lexicon 31

2.1 Introduction 31

2.2 Pre-syntactic word-formation 33

2.3 Morphology and phonology 37

2.4 Compounding as a lexical process 40

2.5 Level-ordered phonology and morphology 43

2.6 The form of word-formation rules 49

2.7 Problems with level-ordered morphology 53

2.8 Base-driven strata 57

2.9 Lexicality, productivity and the existence of words 60

Exercises 62

Further reading 63

3 Inflectional morphology 64

3.1 Introduction 64

3.2 Inflection versus derivation 66

3.3 Inflection in English 72

3.4 The problem of underdetermination 85

3.5 Pieces or rules? 92

3.6 Morphomes 97

Exercises 98

Further reading 99

4 Argument-structure: Nominalisation 100

4.1 Introduction 100

4.2 Affixes as functors on argument-structure 103

4.3 Argument-structure in compounds 107

4.4 Result nouns versus complex event nominals 110

4.5 Root compounds versus synthetic compounds 115

4.6 A syntactic view on the derivation of nominals 122

4.7 A syntactic view on synthetic compounds 131

4.8 A lexical semantic approach 134

Exercises 139

Further reading 139

5 Argument-structure: Derived verbs 140

5.1 Introduction 140

5.2 A syntactic approach: Denominal verbs as incorporation 145

5.3 Lexical semantic approaches 153

5.4 Semantic features 157

5.5 Conversion 162

Exercises 164

Further reading 165

6 Analogy, storage and rules 166

6.1 Introduction 166

6.2 Storage and computation 168

6.3 Rules-only 170

6.4 Storage-only 173

6.5 Dual-mechanism models 178

6.6 Rules-only again 180

Exercises 189

Further reading 189.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780748645138

0748645136

9780748645121

0748645128

OCLC:

872980177