Inflectional Classes Research Articles

Book Review: Mark Aronoff’s <i>Morphology by Itself: Stems and Inflectional Classes</i>

Aronoff, Mark (1994). Morphology by Itself: Stems and Inflectional Classes . Linguistic Inquiry Monograph Series, 22. Cambridge, M.A: Mit Press, Pp. Xviii+210

Beyging og merking orðsins hjalt

Icel. hjalt is mostly used in the plural. In Modern Icelandic two different plural forms (i.e. in nom./acc.) are known, hjölt and hjöltu (def. hjöltin and hjöltun). The latt er form is not listed in the dictionaries. It is, however, well documented in the modern language, and its history can be traced to the 16th century. According to the dictionaries the meaning of hjalt in the plural is ‘cross-guard and pommel’ or even (at least in Old Icelandic) ‘cross-guard, grip and pommel’. However, many people believe that hjölt(or hjöltu) refers to the cross-guard only. This is thus an instance of semantic nar-rowing. The meaning of Engl. hilt offers an interesting comparison. It seems to have two meanings, ‘grip’ and ‘cross-guard, grip and pommel’. This is another instance of semantic narrowing, although slightly different. Translating Engl. hilt with hjölt(or hjöltu) can be problematic. An attempt is made to explain the change hjölt(in)→hjöltu(n). This analogical change is quite unexpected, since hjölt belongs to a large and productive inflectional class (a-stems, e.g. fj all (pl.fj öll)), hjöltu on the other hand fol-lows a tiny class (an-stems, e.g. hjarta, (pl. hjörtu)). Two explanations are offered: First, the phonetic similarity between hjalt and hjarta. Secondly, the existence of a semantic “lexical gang” within the tiny class, consisting of the words auga, eyra, lunga, nýra and eista, all of which usually refer to a pair in the plural (‘eyes, ears, lungs, kidneys, testicles’), just as hjölt (or hjöltu) does, both in its old and new meaning.

Inter-paradigm leveling in Hebrew verbal system

Paradigm leveling, whereby the number of surface allomorphs within a paradigm is reduced, is often accompanied by the loss of contrast between paradigms (analogy). Since these two are independent of each other, we distinguish between intra- and inter-paradigm leveling. In this paper, we study inter-paradigm leveling in the verb system of Hebrew, manifested by on-going change-oriented variation. In this context, we respond to two questions often addressed in studies on paradigm leveling: (i) Why do some paradigms interact in inter-paradigm leveling and others do not? (ii) What determines the direction of leveling? With regard to the first question, we argue that inter-paradigm leveling is triggered by similarity between whole paradigms, and propose a model that quantifies similarity and predicts the relative chance for two paradigms to undergo inter-paradigm leveling. With regard to the second question, we identify two types of directionality, uni- and bidirectional leveling, and show that the selection between these two is determined by the size of the inflectional classes. Class size determines the direction in unidirectional leveling (the larger is the winner) and class size ratio distinguishes between uni- and bidirectional leveling (the higher the ratio the greater the chance for unidirectional leveling).

Verbalizers leave marks: evidence from Greek

In this article we provide evidence that the verbalizing v head in Greek has a morphological exponence in many more verbs than is apparent. Although, at first sight, verbs in the traditional second conjugation inflectional class (which exhibit non-root stress, e.g., aɣap-o ‘I love’, poθ-o ‘I desire’) do not seem to contain an overt piece of verbalizing morphology, we show that they take a vocalic extension consisting of an abstract vocalic slot. This slot, which can either be filled in with vocalic material or remain empty, undertakes the function of a verbalizer. Two major gains of this analysis is that it provides solid evidence for a v head as a verbalizer and not as a composite Voice-verbalizing head and that it proposes a unified treatment of the Greek verb morphology without extensively retreating to stem allomorphy.

Productivity patterns of derivational and inflectional adaptation of new borrowings

The paper analyses affixation of new borrowings in Lithuanian and the process of their integration into the system of Lithuanian morphological paradigms applying the framework of Natural Morphology. Two word classes, nouns and adjectives, have been analysed and productivity patterns of the new lexicon are presented and discussed. To the group of new borrowings are assigned those items that have been accepted into Lithuanian since 1990 or those that have not been included into the “Dictionary of International Words” (1985). The corpus of data used for the present analysis is compiled from the material found in the Database of New Borrowings, which provides information about borrowing into Lithuanian in written public texts of the last two decades, and the Corpus of Spoken Lithuanian (2006–2009).It has been found that the new borrowings follow the inflectional and derivational rules of the most productive morphological paradigms of Lithuanian. The most productive inflectional class of the borrowed nouns is -as, less productive is -is (-io), and the least productive is -a. As for the suffixes, the most productive are -imas (signalling abstract nouns), -ininkas (naming of persons), and the feminine derivational form -inė (from the masculine form –inis) for naming of instrument/ location.The newly borrowed adjectives, as a rule, are only rarely integrated into Lithuanian vocabulary by just adding the Lithuanian inflectional endings, they are mainly integrated using a suffix. In the adjective group the most productive suffix is -inis, while the least productive is -iškas.The research of new borrowings as either inflectional or derivational. This is due to the fact that the derivational relationship between the base and the derived forms in the case of new borrowing is difficult to identify and to prove.

The complexity of inflectional systems

Abstract We regard the complexity of any inflection-class system as the extent to which the similarities among its inflection classes tend to inhibit motivated inferences about the word forms realizing a paradigm’s cells. We propose ten objective measures of this sort of complexity. We apply these measures in comparing the declensional systems of Latin and Sanskrit, which we represent in a standard format that we call a “plat”; we execute these measurements with an online tool that is freely available for readers to use. We show that the ten measures are not equivalent; together, they show that the declensional systems of Latin and Sanskrit are roughly comparable in complexity. We discuss a number of methodological issues raised by this new approach to typological comparison.

Agreeing with subjects in number: The rare split of Amuzgo verbal inflection

AbstractVerbs in San Pedro Amuzgo, an Oto-Manguean language of Mexico, often have two different stems in the paradigm, one used with singular subjects and the other with plural subjects. This split motivated by number is typologically interesting due to its rarity, since number splits are commonly along the S/O vs. A distinction, not the S/A vs. O distinction. Apart from at stem level, the split is also manifested in the incompletive of an inflectional class of verbs. At stem level the plural stem is derived in a variety of unproductive ways, making the relation between singular and plural stems, synchronically, one of suppletion. In this article, we study the distribution and the morphological properties of this split in depth, using a sample of almost 600 fully inflected verbs from a large database compiled by native linguist Fermín Tapia and now publicly accessible on the Surrey Morphology Group’s website. We also place it in a typological context, relating it to other systems we have observed.

Stem Storage? Not Proven: A Reply to Bermúdez-Otero 2013

Stem Storage? Not Proven: A Reply to Bermúdez-Otero 2013

A mixed system of agreement in the suffix classes of Lealao Chinantec

In Lealao Chinantec, an Oto-Manguean language of Mexico, verbs receive a set of suffixes which index person and number of the subject. There are various sets of such affixes producing the sort of allomorphy that is typical of inflectional classes. In this paper, I study the distribution of such suffixes in a large sample of verbs from Rupp and Rupp’s (1996) dictionary and show that the allomorphy is largely morphosyntactically motivated for a group of verbs that have two paradigms, animate and inanimate. For many other verbs this morphosyntactic mapping fails and the allomorphy we observe is essentially morphological in nature. This allomorphy reflects the interaction of what I treat as two competing systems of agreement. One such system is a more canonical agreement system based on subject (S/A), the other is based on animacy agreement with the absolutive argument (S/O) (also found in other Chinantecan languages). These two systems and the way they talk to each other has important consequences for the morphology-syntax interface of Lealao Chinantec.

Reinforcement in inflection classes: Two cues may be better than one

The paper presents examples of inflection class reinforcement, where an inflection class becomes more different from its neighbours than it was. This is a manifestation of a diachronic tendency for more overt marking, similar to Kuryłowicz’ first law for analogy. It is also a manifestation of redundancy, which is characteristic of inflection. If inflection classes do not serve any purpose (as claimed by, for example, Wurzel 1986 ), it would seem strange that they should be strengthened. So, classes are not mere junk; reinforcement of class distinctions (polarisation) testifies to the autonomy of morphology (cf., for example, Aronoff 1994 , Carstairs-McCarthy 2010 , Maiden 2011 ).A change in Swedish conjugation is argued to be reinforcement. We consider a case where declension wins over gender in Norwegian, the opposite of what has been claimed to be the norm for that language. That case is also reinforcement. I suggest that reinforcement may be thought of as a kind of simplification. That also fits with the geographical distribution of a specific change. The paper also presents some evidence that a fairly ‘concrete’ definition of inflection classes can sometimes be useful.Inflection classes often latch on to extra-morphological properties in the cases examined, as claimed by Natural Morphology ( Wurzel 1984 ). Yet it is problematic for Wurzel that inflection classes (mere ‘ballast’, in his view, Wurzel 1986 : 76) should be strengthened. The finding is, however, expected if ‘[…] autonomously morphological structure […] can be a dynamic, self-reinforcing factor in morphological change’ ( Maiden 2005 : 168).

Explaining tense marking changes in Swedish verbs

This study investigates the role of analogy in the changes in inflectional classes of Swedish verbs from the Old Swedish to Modern Swedish period. Verbs in the Germanic languages are generally classed as either weak or strong according to their type of inflection, but closer examination reveals interesting subtleties and exceptions to this general picture. Furthermore, changes in inflectional class go in different directions: not only from strong to weak, but also the other way around, and between strong classes and weak classes. Two analogical computer models — Analogical Modeling (Skousen 1989) and Minimal Generalization (Albright & Hayes 2002) — are used to model a selection of 80 such changes in the history of Swedish verbs. Taking only phonological descriptions of present tense verb stems paired with their original past tense stems as input, the models attempt to predict the most likely past tense forms based on analogy. In the cases where the new outcome matches the actual changes in Swedish, the predictions are considered correct. In this way, both models predicted roughly half of all changes correctly, but 83% of the changes where a weak verb became strong. I conclude that analogy modeled in this way may play a moderate to strong role in inflection class change in general, but a particularly strong role in the case of new strong verbs. Based on these results, analogy is deserving of a revaluation as an explanatory force in diachronic linguistics.

The third gender of Old Italian

We demonstrate that Old Italian had a three-gender system within which the neuter still qualified as a fully fledged gender value. To substantiate this claim, we adduce evidence showing that (a) Old Italian had three distinct sets of controllers, each of which selected a separate agreement pattern; (b) to each one of those three controller sets, including the neuter, nouns were assigned belonging to different productive inflectional classes and (c) the neuter still selected at least one dedicated agreement formative, thereby still displaying traces of its original status as a target gender. This novel evidence from Old Italian squares well with what is known about past stages of other Romance varieties. Also, we briefly address the consequences of our results both for a reconstruction of the Latin-Romance transition and, more broadly, for the theoretical and methodological approach to the study of the diachronic development of gender systems.

Variables and similarity in linguistic generalization: Evidence from inflectional classes in Portuguese

Two opposing viewpoints have been advanced to account for morphological productivity, one according to which some knowledge is couched in the form of operations over variables, and another in which morphological generalization is primarily determined by similarity. We investigated this controversy by examining the generalization of Portuguese verb stems, which fall into one of three conjugation classes. In Study 1, an elicited production task revealed that the generalization of 2nd and 3rd conjugation stems is influenced by the degree of phonological similarity between novel roots and existing verbs, whereas the 1st conjugation generalizes beyond similarity. In Study 2, we directly contrasted two distinct computational implementations of conjugation class assignment in how well they matched the human data: a similarity-driven model that captures phonological similarities, and a dual-mechanism model that implements an explicit distinction between context-free and similarity-based generalizations. The similarity-driven model consistently underestimated 1st conjugation responses and overestimated proportions of 2nd and 3rd conjugation responses, especially for novel verbs that are highly similar to existing verbs of those classes. In contrast, the expected proportions produced by the dual-mechanism model were statistically indistinguishable from human responses. We conclude that both context-free and context-sensitive processes determine the generalization of conjugations in Portuguese, and that similarity-based algorithms of morphological acquisition are insufficient to exhibit default-like generalization.

Patterns of reorganization of the early English nominal system

The present paper discusses the reorganization process of early English nominal inflection, investigating in detail the mechanism involved. The focus of the study is on the old English minor (unproductive) declensions which testify to a considerable departure from the inherited Proto-Germanic inflectional system, losing their identity as independent inflectional classes in the course of the Old English period. The investigation aims at identifying the patterns of the restructuring process, in particular its distribution with respect to the criteria of case and number. The data analysis shows that the patterns of restructuring were largely determined by the case/number hierarchy as predicted by the theories of markedness. It also reveals the importance of factors such as the morphological and semantic makeup of individual classes and the frequency of occurrence (operating on different levels) with its conserving effect. In a broader context, the study explores some general consequences of the process of the reshaping of the early English inflectional system, especially its theoretical implications for the traditional philological taxonomy of Old English nouns.

The Morphological and Semantic Types of Old English Lost Adjectives

The aim of this article is to provide a morphological and semantic analysis of the ca. 4,800 Old English adjectives that, having got lost throughout linguistic evolution, are not included in the Oxford English Dictionary. On the morphological side, the category and inflectional class of the base of derivation as well as the affixes and the type of derivational process are taken into account, while the semantic analysis yields a classification of these Old English adjectives based on categories proposed by the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary. The conclusion reached in the morphological analysis is that affixation patterns surviving into Present-day English and more type-frequent affixation patterns show lower percentages of lexical loss than, respectively, less type-frequent and lost affixation patterns. The main conclusion of semantic analysis is that lexical losses of the adjectival class often comprise adjectives denoting abstract qualities.

Klasyfikacja czasowników nowogreckich w czasach teraźniejszym i przeszłym niedokonanym

When the Modern Greek verbal system is analysed many similarities may be seen. Despite that, the system is divided into conjugations and inflectional classes that do not cover all verbs. Given that the Modern Greek verbal inflection can be characterised as regular and symmetric from the morphological point of view, the question whether it is necessary to distinguish conjugations with non-conjugational’ inflectional classes as e.g. contracted verbs arises.The objective is to review classifications of the conjugational systems of the Modern Greek verbs in the Indicative Mood of the Present and Imperfective Past Tenses and, in accordance to the morphological analysis of verbal forms, to propose a new one. The analysis concentrates on the morphology of verbal forms and on analogies between the second conjugation and the contracted verbs. The analysis is based on the morphological features of verbs. In other words, it concentrates on the distinction of a verbal stem or stems, personal endings and correlation between them. Such an approach enables one to observe similarities and differences among verbs, regardless of the conjugational class they represent. Consequently, it is possible to group verbs in accordance to the features of the stem and personal endings that are added, leading to a proposal of new classification of the Modern Greek verbal system.

Gender Agreement: a psycholinguistic and aphasia case study.

Gender Agreement: a psycholinguistic and aphasia case study.

Prototypentheorie und Flexionsmorphologie

This article presents an application of the theory of prototypes to the field of inflectional morphology and especially to the treatment of exceptions. From the assumption that the handling of irregular facts is basically ruled by the same principles of categorization as the handling of regular facts, the article shows on concrete examples of German nouns - weak masculine nouns, feminine nouns with inflected e-plural and er-plural - that the principle of the motivation of inflection by other properties of lexical items (phonological, semantic, syntactic properties) also works in inflectional classes with few elements. This type of analysis leads to the hypothesis of much more complex categorial structures, which includes subcategories with very few elements, instead of the traditional dichotomy between regular and irregular or a simple continuum prototypical - non prototypical.

Morphological Organization: The Low Conditional Entropy Conjecture

Crosslinguistically, inflectional morphology exhibits a spectacular range of complexity in both the structure of individual words and the organization of systems that words participate in. We distinguish two dimensions in the analysis of morphological complexity. enumerative complexity (E-complexity) reflects the number of morphosyntactic distinctions that languages make and the strategies employed to encode them, concerning either the internal composition of words or the arrangement of classes of words into inflection classes. This, we argue, is constrained by integrative complexity (I-complexity). The I-complexity of an inflectional system reflects the difficulty that a paradigmatic system poses for language users (rather than lexicographers) in information-theoretic terms. This becomes clear by distinguishing average paradigm entropy from average conditional entropy . The average entropy of a paradigm is the uncertainty in guessing the realization for a particular cell of the paradigm of a particular lexeme (given knowledge of the possible exponents). This gives one a measure of the complexity of a morphological system—systems with more exponents and more inflection classes will in general have higher average paradigm entropy—but it presupposes a problem that adult native speakers will never encounter. In order to know that a lexeme exists, the speaker must have heard at least one word form, so in the worst case a speaker will be faced with predicting a word form based on knowledge of one other word form of that lexeme. Thus, a better measure of morphological complexity is the average conditional entropy, the average uncertainty in guessing the realization of one randomly selected cell in the paradigm of a lexeme given the realization of one other randomly selected cell. This is the I-complexity of paradigm organization. Viewed from this information-theoretic perspective, languages that appear to differ greatly in their E-complexity—the number of exponents, inflectional classes, and principal parts—can actually be quite similar in terms of the challenge they pose for a language user who already knows how the system works. We adduce evidence for this hypothesis from three sources: a comparison between languages of varying degrees of E-complexity, a case study from the particularly challenging conjugational system of Chiquihuitlán Mazatec, and a Monte Carlo simulation modeling the encoding of morphosyntactic properties into formal expressions. The results of these analyses provide evidence for the crucial status of words and paradigms for understanding morphological organization.

Pattern-and-root inflectional morphology: the Arabic broken plural

We present a substantially implemented model of description of the inflectional morphology of Arabic nouns, with special attention to the management of dictionaries and other language resources by Arabic-speaking linguists. Our model includes broken plurals (BPs), i.e. plurals formed by modifying the stem.It is based on the traditional notions of root and pattern of Semitic morphology. However, as compared to traditional Arabic morphology, it keeps the formal description of inflection separate from that of derivation and semantics. As traditional Arabic dictionaries, the updatable dictionary is structured in lexical entries for lemmas, and the reference spelling is fully diacritized. In our model, morphological analysis of Arabic text is performed directly with a dictionary of words and without morphophonological rules.Our taxonomy for noun inflection is simple, orderly and detailed. We simplify the taxonomy of singular patterns by specifying vowel quantity as v or vv, and ignoring vowel quality. Root alternations and orthographical variations are encoded independently from patterns and in a factual way, without deep roots or morphophonological or orthographical rules. Nouns with a triliteral BP are classified according to 22 patterns subdivided into 90 classes, and nouns with a quadriliteral BP according to 3 patterns subdivided into 70 classes. These 160 classes become 300 inflectional classes when we take into account inflectional variations that affect only the singular.We provide a straightforward encoding scheme that we applied to 3200 entries of BP nouns.