Systemic polyfunctionality and morphology–syntax interdependencies

Abstract

Abstract The chapter examines classes of grammatical markers that can serve more than one function, polyfunctional markers, spoiling the one-to-one form and function relation which is what morphology tends to do. There are areas of the grammar more prone to this behaviour suggesting that there may be at work principles of morphological organization that lie orthogonally to sign-based principles such as Transparency. The distributions attested in Tundra Nenets provide a fertile ground for exploration because they combine polyfunctionality with cumulative exponence, where a single paradigm indexes two sets of features. Recasting Blevins’ (2016) abstractive analysis as a default inheritance hierarchy the analysis is guided by insights from Paradigm Function Morphology and Sign Based Construction Grammar, and treats polyfunctionality as the realization of a unifying morphomic feature that abstracts away what is common between different morphosyntactic configurations.