On the nature of Bulgarian prefixes: Ordering and modification in multiple prefixation

Abstract

The paper deals with multiple prefixation in Bulgarian and the linearization of the Bulgarian verbal prefixes. Following the basic intuition behind Baker's (1985) ‘Mirror Principle’, according to which syntax reflects morphology and vice versa, I propose that the linearization of the Bulgarian prefixes is syntactically driven. More precisely, and in order to describe the principles according to which prefixes are merged in syntax, I defend the existence of a universal hierarchy of functional projections, as in Cinque (1999) , according to which affixes are merged in order to check their features. Consequently, whenever a prefix bears some aspectual (Aktionsart) content, it is merged within this hierarchy of aspectual features as a head of the corresponding functional projection. In this way, the attested prefix orderings are correctly accounted for. With these assumptions in mind, I present syntactic, semantic and morphological evidence for establishing three types of prefixes in Bulgarian: lexical (idiosyncratic), inner (argument-structure related) and outer (adverbial), and show that the surface order is always [outer [inner [lexical]]]. Moreover, I show that the different syntactic derivations of these prefixes are responsible for the observed semantic and morphological differences together with the linearization patterns and hierarchical dependencies attested within the three prefix groups.