YPL2 - Issue 10

Issue 10 (May 2009)

Special Issue: York-Essex Morphology Meeting (YEMM)

Editors: Alexandra Galani, Daniel Redinger and Norman Yeo

Roots and Lexicality in Distributed Morphology

1–21

Paolo Acquaviva

Abstract

This paper examines the nature and content of morphological roots in relation to their syntac- tic context. A careful consideration of doublets, where the same root may take alternative noun-inherent features, leads to the claim that roots do not carry selectional features or class diacritics. Relying on the distinction between syntactic nodes and their exponents, central to a realizational model like Distributed Morphology, I argue that the syntactic atoms correspond- ing to root nodes are associated with open-class exponents but not with a specific meaning that might select a licensing syntactic context. "Lexical" meaning arises constructionally, and so do lexical properties like gender or class, which however emerge at Vocabulary insertion and may show selectional properties. Content and exponence of roots are thus dissociated, in line with the separationist character of Distributed Morphology. This predicts the existence of root-like elements with mixed status, namely open-class exponents used as grammatical mor- phemes (like auxiliaries or classifiers), or category-free root extensions below the innermost category-assigning head (like de- in de-struction).

Morphology-Semantics Interface: Dealing with Aspect

22–45

Olga Borik

Abstract

The paper investigates the properties of aspectual prefixation in Russian with a special focus on the interpetation of aspectual morphology. Two current morphological theories most often discussed in the generative linguistic literature, Distributed Morphology and Lexicalism, are examined to check if they provide a satisfactory treatment for both structural and semantic properties of aspectual prefixes. It is argued that the modular approach on the basis of Lexicalism is better equipped to tackle the issues of interpretation of aspectual morphology.

Restrictions of Italian Verb Evaluative Suffixes: The Role of Aspect and Actionality

46–66

Nicola Grandi

Abstract

Evaluative morphology has been widely described in the literature in the field. However, scholars have always ignored evaluative constructions with a verb as the base. Actually, evaluative verbs are cross-linguistically less widespread than evaluative nouns and adjectives. Moreover, even in languages in which they display a satisfactory degree of productivity (as in Italian), their occurrences are far from being homogeneous: the distribution of evaluative verbs is highly constrained by the context of occurrence, that is by the tense of the verb. The paper is structured as follows. In section 1, a short definition of ‘evaluative morphology’ is given. Section 2 is devoted to presentation and classification of data. Sections 3 and 4 give reason of the low frequency of Italian ‘evaluative verbs’. In section 3 I investigate restrictions on the application of verbal evaluative suffixes, focusing on the role of actionality (data will show that only durative, dynamic, and atelic verbs can productively join an evaluative suffix). In section 4, constraints on the output of these word formation rules are described: verbs formed by means of an evaluative suffix usually occur only in tenses which convey an imper- fective meaning. In the appendix, the whole list of approximately 150 Italian evaluative verbs on which the analysis presented in this paper is based is given.

Defective Paradigms in Derivational Morphology: Hebrew Valence Changing

67–78

Lior Laks

Abstract

This study examines the correlation between defective paradigms (gaps and irregular forms) and valence changing operations. I examine the productivity of valence changing in Modern Hebrew, manifested in the relation among prosodically distinct configurations, called binyanim. The focus here is on decausativization, an operation that derives decausative verbs by eliminating an external theta role of cause. I show that morpho-phonology can restrict the application of valence changing operations and even block possible derivations when defective verbs are concerned. The analysis provides further support for the lexicalist hypothesis and to a word-based account for Hebrew morphology.

Adjectival Inflection in Dutch

79–104

Jesse Tseng

Abstract

Most prenominal adjectives in Dutch have two distinct inflectional forms (e.g. goed and goede 'good') whose distribution is determined by several interacting lexical and contextual factors. This primarily descriptive study first traces the historical development of the patterns of adjectival inflections in early Germanic and reviews the system of strong vs. weak declensions in modern German, before turning to a detailed examination of the rules governing adjectival inflection in Dutch. The basic rules for the formation and distribution of the inflected forms are presented, followed by additional conditions that introduce complications and variation into the system. The paper concludes with a re-examination of the differences between Dutch and German NP structures, and a brief discussion of adverbial inflection in the Dutch adjectival phrase.