ФОРМАЛНО ОПИСАНИЕ НА СЛОВООБРАЗУВАТЕЛНИТЕ СТРУКТУРИ В НОРМАТИВНАТА ГРАМАТИКА НА БЪЛГАРСКИЯ ЕЗИК / FORMAL DESCRIPTION OF WORD-FORMATION STRUCTURES IN BULGARIAN NORMATIVE GRAMMAR

Abstract

This work proposes principles for the formal description of word-formation structures in a synchronic study within the framework of normative grammar. One of the basic postulates of normative grammar is the independence of the de-scription of form and meaning, which is motivated by relative, though sufficient, au-tonomy of the structure of meaning (semantic structure) and of the formal structure of complex language units. This study takes for granted the existence of structural isomorphism between clauses and derived lexemes. In the context of the description of word-formation phenomena, this means that – in parallel to what is found in clause syntax, which distinguishes between the conceptual structure of a clause and the clausal form – both semantic structure and formal structure are assigned to derived lexemes. The consistent implementation of this distinction leads to defining word-formation as morphemic syntax (similar to sentence syntax) and derived words as structures within which rules for formal and semantic combination of morphemes are applied. The attempt at developing a model for formal derivational structures presented in the paper is based on the formal features of derivational exponents. These features serve to derive the following dichotomic division criteria: 1) affixal – +/- attachment of a given type of affix to the stem; 2) confixal – +/- attachment of two affixes to the stem; 3) alternating – +/- qualitative stem alternation; 4) reductional – +/- stem reduction; 5) paradigmatic – +/- attachment to the stem of a grammatical morpheme other than the one in the derivational base. Keywords: formal description, formal word-formation structures, normative grammar