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In defence of morphomic analyses

In defence of morphomic analyses There has been some debate over the notion of “morphomes”, i.e., patterns of inflection without any clear motivation outside of morphology. Morphomes are taken as evidence for some autonomy of morphology. However, it has been claimed that there is “very little evidence for change which operates on morphology alone”, in other words that morphology does not change independently – and this has, consequently, been used as an argument against the “morphomic” approach. This paper presents evidence of inflection classes arising or being “strengthened” in Scandinavian, classes that do not have any function outside of morphology. This, then, is evidence of change, operating on morphology alone – even in the relatively “poor” inflection systems of Scandinavian.One of the case studies also shows affixes being changed in order to align better with non-affixal inflection. This goes against the claim that non-affixal inflection is epiphenomenal. The paper also presents criticism of some other arguments that have been used against the morphomic approach. Notably, the “diagnostic problem” suggested for morphomes is hardly more severe than that involved in many other approaches to morphology. The paper also shows a (perhaps unexpected) convergence between the morphomic approach and strands of functionalism.While morphomic patterns may seem redundant and local, this is not unique to them. Many generalisations done by language users may seem redundant and local to linguists. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Acta Linguistica Hafniensia: International Taylor & Francis

In defence of morphomic analyses

Enger, Hans-Olav
Acta Linguistica Hafniensia: International , Volume 51 (1): 29 – Jan 2, 2019
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In defence of morphomic analyses

Abstract

There has been some debate over the notion of “morphomes”, i.e., patterns of inflection without any clear motivation outside of morphology. Morphomes are taken as evidence for some autonomy of morphology. However, it has been claimed that there is “very little evidence for change which operates on morphology alone”, in other words that morphology does not change independently – and this has, consequently, been used as an argument against the...
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© 2019 The Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen
ISSN
1949-0763
eISSN
0374-0463
DOI
10.1080/03740463.2019.1594577
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

There has been some debate over the notion of “morphomes”, i.e., patterns of inflection without any clear motivation outside of morphology. Morphomes are taken as evidence for some autonomy of morphology. However, it has been claimed that there is “very little evidence for change which operates on morphology alone”, in other words that morphology does not change independently – and this has, consequently, been used as an argument against the “morphomic” approach. This paper presents evidence of inflection classes arising or being “strengthened” in Scandinavian, classes that do not have any function outside of morphology. This, then, is evidence of change, operating on morphology alone – even in the relatively “poor” inflection systems of Scandinavian.One of the case studies also shows affixes being changed in order to align better with non-affixal inflection. This goes against the claim that non-affixal inflection is epiphenomenal. The paper also presents criticism of some other arguments that have been used against the morphomic approach. Notably, the “diagnostic problem” suggested for morphomes is hardly more severe than that involved in many other approaches to morphology. The paper also shows a (perhaps unexpected) convergence between the morphomic approach and strands of functionalism.While morphomic patterns may seem redundant and local, this is not unique to them. Many generalisations done by language users may seem redundant and local to linguists.

Journal

Acta Linguistica Hafniensia: International – Taylor & Francis

Published: Jan 2, 2019

Keywords: Morphomic patterns; inflection class; Scandinavian; autonomy of morphology

References

  • Morphological Organization: The Low Conditional Entropy Conjecture
  • Words and Paradigms
  • Stems and Paradigms
  • Joint Predictiveness in Inflectional Paradigms
  • Inflection Classes, Gender and the Principle of Contrast
  • System-Congruity and Violable Constraints in German Weak Declension
  • Autonomy and Functionalist Linguistics
  • Low-level Schemas or General Rules?
  • The Role of Core and Non-core Semantic Rules in Gender Assignment
  • Inflectional Change, ‘Sound Laws’ and the Autonomy of Morphology
  • Reinforcement in Inflection Classes
  • Morphomes and Predictability in the History of Romance Perfects
  • Formal Asymmetries between the Romance Synthetic Future and Conditional in the Occitan Varieties of the Western Languedoc
  • The Myth of Language Universals
  • Adjectival Predicators and Approaches to Complement Realisation
  • How General are our Generalizations? What Speakers Actually Know and what they Actually Do
  • Irregularity as a Determinant of Morphological Change
  • Morphological Autonomy and Diachrony
  • Where Does Heteroclisis Come from? Evidence from Romanian Dialects
  • Allomorphy, Autonomous Morphology and Phonological Conditioning in the History of the Daco-Romance Present and Subjunctive
  • The Latin ‘Third Stem’ and its Romance Descendants
  • Was ist eigentlich ein Morphem?
  • Dialects in Norway: Catching up with the Rest of Europe?
  • A Counterexample to Homonymy Avoidance
  • How Inflection Class Systems Work: On the Informativity of Implicational Structure
  • Analogical Levelling and Optimization: The Treatment of Pointless Lexical Allomorphy in Greek
  • How Far Can Diachronic Change Be Predicted?
  • On Rules of Referral
  • Heteroclisis and Paradigm Linkage
  • Von der Inadäquatheit einer Affixmorphologie