Inflectional Defectiveness

List of contents

List of tables; List of figures; List of abbreviations; Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. Defining inflectional defectiveness; 3. On the causes of inflectional defectiveness; 4. Productivity, defectiveness, and syncretism; 5. Principal parts, predictability, and paradigmatic gaps; 6. Irreducible gaps and the morphologization of defectiveness; 7. On learnability and the dynamic organization of the lexicon; 8. The implicative structure of the paradigm and other concluding thoughts; Appendix. Information-theoretic and other probability-based measures of inflectional structure.

About the author

Andrea D. Sims is Assistant Professor in the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures at Ohio State University. Her research interests include theoretical morphology, the morphology-syntax interface, the organization of the lexicon, and the relationship between lexical processing and morphological structure.

Summary

An innovative investigation of 'missing' grammatical forms and their significance for linguistic theory. This accessible introduction to inflectional defectiveness draws on both formal and psycholinguistic perspectives to explore the structure of inflectional paradigms: the text's novel approach makes it essential reading for graduate students and researchers in linguistics.

Product details

• Authors: Andrea Sims, Andrea D. (Ohio State University) Sims, Sims Andrea D.
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.05.2019
• EAN: 9781107623712
• ISBN: 978-1-107-62371-2
• No. of pages: 331
• Series: Cambridge Studies in Linguistics
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > Other languages / Other literatures; Linguistics, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Grammar & Punctuation, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Syntax, Language: history & general works, Grammar, syntax & morphology, Grammar, syntax and morphology, Language: history and general works