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SUMMARY:Morphosyntactic complexity: a typology of lexical splits - Grev Co
 rbett\, University of Surrey
DTSTART:20141016T153000Z
DTEND:20141016T173000Z
UID:TALK54375@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Jamie Douglas
DESCRIPTION:A key notion in understanding language is ‘possible word (le
 xeme)’. While there are lexemes that are internally homogeneous and exte
 rnally consistent\, we find others with splits in their internal structure
  (morphological paradigm) and inconsistencies in their external behaviour 
 (syntactic requirements). I first explore the characteristics of the most 
 straightforward lexemes\, in order to establish a point in the theoretical
  space from which we can calibrate the real examples we find. I then schem
 atize the interesting phenomena which deviate from this idealization\, inc
 luding suppletion\, syncretism\, deponency and defectiveness. Next I analy
 se the different ways in which lexemes are ‘split’ by such phenomena. 
 I set out a typology of possible splits\, along four dimensions: (i) split
 s based on the composition/feature signature of the paradigm versus those 
 based solely on morphological form\; (ii) motivated (following a boundary 
 motivated from outside the paradigm) versus purely morphology-internal (
 ‘morphomic’)\; (iii) regular (extending across the lexicon) versus irr
 egular (lexically specified)\; (iv) externally relevant versus irrelevant.
  I identify instances of these four dimensions separately: they are orthog
 onal\, and therefore not dependent on each other. Their interaction gives 
 a substantial typology\, and it proves to be surprisingly complete: the po
 ssibilities specified are all attested. The typology also allows for the u
 nexpected patterns of behaviour to overlap in particular lexemes\, produci
 ng some remarkable examples. Such examples show that the notion ‘possibl
 e word’ is more challenging than many linguists have realized.
LOCATION:GR06-7\, English Faculty\, 9 West Road (Sidgwick Site)
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