Morphological Typology

Abstract

The term ‘morphological typology’ has been traditionally associated with the division of languages into basic ‘holistic’ types that could be used to characterize a complete language. Characterization of the morphological complexity of words is the sense in which morphological typology has traditionally been understood. Morphology's role is to interface between phonology and syntax. The variety of means by which morphology can perform the role of realizing morphosyntactic features is discussed. The weakness of traditional morphological typology was its overly ‘holistic’ approach. Theoretical morphology has come a long way since that time, but the ramifications of theoretical distinctions are still explored, such as that between realizational theories and lexical theories. Pure morphology, inflectional classes, and the different mechanisms associated with phenomena such as syncretism suggest a variety of dimensions along which the world's languages can be typologized.