32.3561, Review: Morphology: Lieber (2021)

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Subject: 32.3561, Review: Morphology: Lieber (2021)

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Date: Tue, 09 Nov 2021 23:41:55
From: Alexandra Galani [algalani at uoi.gr]
Subject: The Oxford Encyclopedia of Morphology (volume 3)

 
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/32/32-359.html

EDITOR: Rochelle  Lieber
TITLE: The Oxford Encyclopedia of Morphology
SUBTITLE: 3-volume set
PUBLISHER: Oxford University Press
YEAR: 2021

REVIEWER: Alexandra Galani, University of Ioannina

SUMMARY 

“The Oxford Encyclopedia of Morphology”, by Rochelle Lieber (Editor-in-Chief),
is a three-volume set. The third volume includes twenty-eight articles, a
directory of the set’s contributors, and an index (for all three volumes). The
articles which explore morphological systems in various language families
offer information about the family’s typology, history, and/or classification.

The Morphology-Semantics Interface

Salvador Valera explores data (from affixation, conversion-related pairs) and
issues related to the distinction of “Polysemy Versus Homonymy”: i.e., (word
class, lexeme membership) restrictions, criteria (relatedness,
distinctiveness), tests (ambiguity, paradigmatic associations), semantic
relatedness, and formal (form/meaning) changes. Evidence from theoretical
models further highlights the difficulty in distinguishing the two phenomena. 
   

Réka Benczes examines the relationship between “Morphology and Lexical
Semantics” by looking at meaning compositionality in complex words,
reduplication patterns, derivatives and affixation (suffixation, affix
replacement). On a theoretical level, reference is made to Construction
Morphology, usage-based models, the two conceptual metaphors (CONTAINER,
building block) which the theory of compositionality was based on, and the
“connectionist model” (Gonnerman et al., 2007). 

Martin Hilpert defines “Lexicalization in Morphology” and sketches the
morphological processes which are relevant to lexicalisation (affixation,
compounding, conversion, clippings, acronyms, initialisms, blending, coinage,
borrowing). Non-compositional meaning in complex units, obliteration of
morpheme boundaries, univerbation, and context expansion serve as diagnostics
for lexicalisation. How lexicalisation is differentiated from
grammaticalisation and the typological differences in lexicalisation are also
explored.  

Diachronic Aspects of Morphology

Carola Trips explains what “Morphological Change” (MC) is and what causes it
(constructional iconicity, language contact, abductive change, analogy). MCs
occur at the interface with phonology (dephonologisation: i-mutation in the
Germanic languages, Umlaut), syntax (desyntacticisation: development of
inflectional suffixes in French, nominal compounding in the Germanic
languages) and semantics (reanalysis of morphological complexes, the
development of derivational suffixes). Morphology-internal changes (analogy in
Neogrammarians and Anderson’s (2015) treatment) are also sketched.      

Muriel Norde discusses “Grammaticalization in Morphology”. She sketches
grammaticalisation as a language change phenomenon and as a framework. The
common properties of (de)grammaticalisation are highlighted prior to
introducing arguments in favour of/against primary and secondary
(de)grammaticalisation. Representative examples of primary grammaticalisation
(loss of morphological properties), secondary grammaticalisation (the
development of bound morphemes), degrammaticalisation, deinflectionalisation
and debonding are offered. Reference to other composite changes (the
development of derivational affixes, lexicalisation as increase of autonomy,
category change without (de)grammaticalisation, exaptation) is made.      

Silvina Montrul and James Yoon explore the relationship between “Morphology
and Language Attrition” in bilinguals. They identify factors which affect
attrition (i.e., input availability/lack, age, language use) and outline
attrition patterns (reduced fluency, code-switching), measuring methods (i.e.,
online/offline tasks) and theoretical treatments (i.e., Regression Hypothesis,
Interface Hypothesis, Activation Threshold Hypothesis, Dynamic Systems
Theory). They discuss attrition in (inflectional/derivational) morphology and
age effects. 

Daniel Fertig approaches “Analogy in Morphology” from a Neogrammarian
perspective. He refers to analogical morphological changes (proportional
analogy, back-formation, paradigm leveling, contamination, folk etymology),
constraints (e.g., grammar optimisation/simplification, relative likelihood,
system independent preference), and the role of morphological similarity. 

Morphology in the Languages of the World

In “Morphology in Typology: Historical Retrospect, State of the Art, and
Prospects”, Peter M. Arkadiev sketches the history of morphological typology.
Issues related to the cross-linguistic morphological diversity of words and
affixes, as well as to the distinction between inflection and derivation
(features of prototypical inflection/derivation, productive non-inflectional
concatenation, lexical relatedness) are discussed. Reference is made to
qualitative and quantitative cross-linguistic approaches (e.g., biuniqueness
model, Mirror Principle, Principle of Relevance, template/layered morphology,
entropy-based approach) to morphological phenomena (i.e., affix ordering,
inflectional classes, paradigms).      

In “Lexical Typology in Morphology”, Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm and Ljuba
Veselinova discuss “word-class categorization within a language and across
languages” (p. 1826), “categorization within major word classes” (p. 1828) and
“irregularities in morphological patterns” (p. 1832) (i.e., suppletive forms,
morphological leveling, paradigm organisation). They explore the structure of
lexical items (basic, non-derived items versus complex lexical ones), the
Greenbergian index of complexity, the semantic analysis of events, states and
satellites, (anti)causative and action nominal formation, lexical affixes
(locationals, directionals, instrumentals), closed-class verbs expressed by
multiword expressions/complex predicates, and the lexical profiles of
languages.    

In “Head/Dependent Marking” (HDM), Johanna Nichols and Yury Lander examine HDM
patterns. These include  head/dependent/double/neutral/detached/none marking,
indexation, registration, whole-language types and constituent types’ locus of
marking (i.e., clauses, NPs, PPs, sentences). HDM has been incorporated in
structural overviews, descriptive grammars, typological research and
theoretical frameworks (i.e., lexical functional grammar, role and reference
grammar, generative grammar). Issues are raised with HDM in the presence of
determiners/linkers/free clitics, when the dependent appears in/on the head,
when the locus of marking is on non-arguments, and when markers exhibit
head/dependent/split/multiple-head properties. HDM can be assigned to phrases
and is achieved on the basis of three strategies (HEAD/EDGE/EVERYWHERE-based).
HDM is typologically (dominant alignment, word order, inclusive/exclusive
oppositions, possessive classes, verbal high inflectional synthesis,
positional/general absence of number oppositions, polysynthesis, (in)alienable
possession oppositions, inflectional person) and geographically distributed. 

Asli Göksel explores “Morphology in Altaic Languages” and, more specifically,
in Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic. She outlines the general properties of
(phonological) words, morphological operations (stems, suffixes, clitics,
affixoids, allomorphy, base modification, conversion, suspended affixation),
inflection (nominal, including number, possessive person-number, case,
adjectival, and verbal, including voice, negation, tense, aspect, modality,
predicative person-number, and non-finite), derivation, reduplicative
prefixation, compounding, doubling, blends, acronyms, and alphabetisms.

In “Morphology in Arawak Languages” (ArL), Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald sketches
ArL word structure, morphological processes (i.e., circumfixation, infixation,
subtraction, apophony, reduplication), nominal/verbal/adjectival morphology,
word-class changing derivations, common affixes in verbs/nouns and closed word
classes (manner adverbs, personal pronouns, demonstratives, adpositions,
discourse particles). Possession, number, gender, classifiers, case and
nominal tense are marked in nouns, whereas morphologically complex nominal
forms consist of suffixes/enclitics expressing additional grammatical
categories. The structure of verbal forms (i.e., thematic suffix), verbal
classes (e.g., active/stative, transitive/ditransitive/intransitive,
split/fluid-s marking), verbal categories (tense, aspect, evidentiality,
modalities, valency-changing derivations), noun incorporation, and
morphological patterns due to language contact are highlighted.    

Theodore Levin and Maria Polinsky outline the basic units (roots, stems,
prefixes, suffixes, infixes), reduplication and cliticisation patterns present
in the “Morphology in Austronesian Languages” (AL). Valency-changing
operations (voice, transitivity, causativisation, applicativisation),
verbal/wh-agreement and nominal morphology (case/number/gender marking,
pronominal forms, possessive markers) are also sketched.   

In “Morphology in Dravidian Languages” (DL), R. Amritavalli exemplifies
person/gender/number marking on nominal forms, gender/number agreement on
postnominal quantifiers and predicative/postnominal adjectives, (monstrous)
agreement/tense/finiteness on verbal forms, case marking on nominal/non-finite
verbal forms and adjectivisation processes. Light/serial verbs and affixes
representing transitivity, causativity, reflexivity and benefactivity are
present in DL. Pluractional verbs and suffixes marking distal action/movement
appear in the verbal forms. Quotative, topic particles, and
conjunction/disjunction markers exhibit reduplication patterns (echo,
distributive quantification).  

Yongxian Luo sketches the origin of affixes and the
morphosyntactic/phonological features of the “Morphology in Kra-Dai Languages”
(KDL). Initial/vowel/tone alternations form word families. Class nouns serve
as classificatory prefixes and numeral classifiers as class prefixes, whereas
locative/temporal meanings are expressed by prefixes.
Verbalising/adjectivising prefixes and expressive affixation are present in
KDL. Nominalisation is achieved by prefixes, suffixes and possessives, whereas
gender marking is achieved by prefixes and suffixes. Affixes mark plurality,
interrogative, reciprocal, and diminutive meanings. Reduplication and its
properties (phonological/morphosyntactic (quantification, collectivity,
attenuation, limitation, degrees of intensity, category shift) as well as
compounding and its properties (coordination, subordination, constituents’
semantic relationships, body-part incorporation, elaborative expressions) are
discussed. 

Giorgio Francesco Arcodia and Bianca Basciano explain that ”Morphology in
Sino-Tibetan Languages” (STL) has been influenced by language contact. The
morphology of Sinitic is first described; from Old and Middle Chinese to
Modern Chinese and Chinese dialects. Due to the morphological variability in
STL, the most characteristic morphological phenomena in Tibeto-Burman are
outlined; namely verb-stem alternation, verb agreement, derivational
morphology (voice markers, prefix preference in SOV order), compounding,
incorporation, and reduplication.     

In “A Typological Perspective on the Morphology of Nilo-Saharan Languages”
(NSL), Gerrit J. Dimmendaal explores the formal morphological properties in
NSL (i.e., analytic, synthetic, suffix preference, person/number agreement as
proclitics/prefixes, reduplication). The discussion of the derivational,
inflectional, and compounding patterns further shows that the morphological
processes may be related to lexical/morphosyntactic features present in NSL.
Morphological differences may be further attributed to multilingualism and
language contact. 

In “Morphology in Austroasiatic Languages” (AaL), Mark J. Alves explains that
AaL differ in terms of affixation patterns, morphological types,
syllable/clause structure, lexical stress and tone systems. The most common
morphological features include: word/syllable structures, expressives, lexical
categories (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, stative verbs, adverbs),
causative affixes, nominalising infixes, reciprocals affixes,
verbalising/stativising prefixes and grammatical categories (subject marking,
case, plurality, aspect, existential/locative). AaLs exhibit
full/partial/alternating reduplication and full/pseudo compounding.
Polysyllabicity as a result of affixation and morphological patterns in Munda,
Nirobaric, Vietnamese, and Muong are highlighted.        

Yury Lander discusses various issues (i.e., the notion of word, word classes)
in the “Morphology in Northwest Caucasian Languages” (NWCL). He sketches
argument structure, causatives, spatial meanings, tense, aspect, modality,
negation, and propositional operators. Notes about nominal morphology,
incorporation, compounding, and reduplication patterns are provided. Morpheme
combinations, compositional rules, recursion, distinctions between the
functions of prefixes/suffixes, and lexical/grammatical morphemes are also
outlined.        

In “Morphology in Quechuan Languages” (QL), Willem F. H. Adelaar sketches the
structure of QLs (e.g., constituent order, case marking), prior to discussing
its morphological typology, parts of speech, morphological classes and
phonotactic constraints. Verbal morphology is examined with reference to
tense, mood, subordination, personal reference, plural marking, speaker
orientation in verbal suffixes,
benefactive/restrictive/valency-changing/directional suffixes, vowel
modification, and irregular verbs. Nominalisations and independent suffixes
are present in QLs, and nominal morphology is also explored (i.e., personal
reference, plural/case marking, ownership, inclusion, diminutive,
augmentative, verbalisation).   

Keren Rice focuses on verb words’ properties in “Morphology in Dene Languages”
(DL). Issues related to verb word productivity, prefixation, discontinuities
in verb themes, semantic idiosyncrasy, affixal mobility, fusion, haplology,
homophony and neutralisation/consonant loss are discussed. As far as verb word
formation is concerned, various treatments (templatic analysis, Lexical
Phonology models, affix ordering and its relation to scope/shape, the
bipartite verb forms, grammaticalisation) are explored. Reference is made to
the verb stem, its formation and semantics, suppletion and stem-initial
variations. Evidence about the verb word is drawn from research on
psycholinguistics, acquisition and sociolinguistics. Nominal morphology, noun
classes, (double) possession, evaluative morphology, directional,
postpositions, and particles are also examined.   

Brett Baker looks at the properties of “Morphology in Australian Languages”
(AusL). Reference is made to AusL word structure, the characteristics of
templatic morphology, headedness, scope, incorporation, stem forms, inflection
classes, multiple case stacking, reduplication, and agreement markers (person,
number, noun classes and gender marking).  

Denis Creissels examines word structure in “Morphology in Niger-Congo
Languages” (NCL): isolation/synthesis in nominal/verbal morphology,
allomorphy, zero marking, sandhi, affix types, separative/cumulative/multiple
exponence, reduplication, and segmental/prosodic alternations. In terms of
nominal inflection, the discussion focuses on gender-number marking, plural
markers, and definiteness/case/possessive/construct/predicative marking, as
well as on the expression of distributivity and indefinite free choice. As far
as verbal morphology is concerned, agreement, indexation, tense, aspect,
modality, polarity, expression of interclausal dependencies and information
structure are explored. Word formation processes include verb-to-verb,
noun-to-verb, noun-to-noun, and verb-to-noun derivation, as well as nominal
and verbal compounding.   

Anna Sörés and Krisztina Hevér-Joly discuss features of the “Morphology in
Uralic Languages” (UL). They sketch word classes and inflectional classes and
refer to UL typology in terms of suffix allomorphy, vowel harmony, stem
alternation (consonant gradation), analytic features, syncretism, and
suppletion. ULs inflect for number, case (mainly grammatical and spatial),
person, tense, aspect and mood. Predicative declension, definiteness and
polarity also occur in ULs. Word formation processes include suffixal/verbal
derivation, reduplication, and compounding.   

In “Morphology in Trans-New Guinean Languages” (TNGL), Sebastian Fedden
explores word classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns,
directional, numerals, postpositions, conjunctions) and word formation
processes (compounding, category/valency-changing derivation,
serial/light-verb constructions). Due to the fact that copulas are not usually
present in TNGLs, existential verbs and verbless-topic comment clauses are
used instead. As far as nominal inflection is concerned,
possessive/gender/case marking is sketched. Verb roots, stems, marking for
core argument indexing, morphosyntactic alignment, experiential clauses,
tense, aspect, mood and illocutionary force are the relevant features of
verbal morphology. Clause chains and reference tracking are common features of
TNGLs.    

In “Morphology in Indo-European Languages” (IEL), Paolo Milizia draws evidence
from Old Indic and Greek to examine the main morphological features of archaic
IEL. Reference is made to parts of speech, word structure, ablaut, affixation,
reduplication, inflectional types thematicity, accent distribution,
nominal/verbal grammatical categories, nominal/verbal suffixes, cumulative
exponence, syncretism, nominal stem alternations, pronouns, verbal stems, and
word formation processes. The second half of the discussion focuses on
morphological developments in IEL and, more specifically, in relation to
morphological decay, morphological enrichment, morphophonology, inflectional
classes, cases, adpositions, nominal typological shifts, number/gender/noun
classes, verbal stems/suffixes, person agreement, definiteness, diathesis,
mood, tenses, past participles periphrasis, split ergativity, preverbation,
and prefixation.    

Taro Kageyama in “Morphology in Japonic Languages” (JL) explains that lexical
strata, lexical categories (noun, verb, adjective, verbal noun, adjectival
noun) and morphemes such as roots, words, word plus affixes, clitics, and
independent words play a role in the morphological processes in JL. As far as
word-level morphology is concerned, JLs exhibit nonconcatenative and
concatenative morphology. Word formation processes include prefixation,
suffixation, lexical alternations of transitivity and compounding (noun-verb,
noun adjective, verb-verb, deverbal compounds). On the sentence-level, phrasal
verbs in syntactic verb-verb compounds, gerundive auxiliary constructions,
suffixal predicates representing voice/aspect, polarity and modality,
nominalising suffixes, postsyntactic compounds, and predicate agglutination
are discussed. Reference is also made to conjugational and inflectional
patterns in verbs, adjectives, and copulas. The way morphology interacts with
syntax and semantics can be seen in agent compounding (transitive verb-noun
and its agent subject), category change via prefixes and compounds, and
lexical aspectual verb-verb compounds.       

Matthew J. Carroll describes “The Morphology of Yam Languages” (YL). He offers
background information on the family, documentation sources and notes on
glossing. Reference is made to the parts of speech (nouns, adjectives,
pronouns, demonstratives, verbs) and word formation processes, the most common
of which is the derivation of infinitives. Nominals are marked for case,
number, and gender, whereas verbal morphology is discussed in terms of
inflectional classes, undergoer prefixes, actor suffixes and tense/aspect/mood
suffixes/categories. YLs exhibit distributed exponence patterns. 

EVALUATION

The third volume of “The Oxford Encyclopedia of Morphology” concludes the
discussion of the interface of morphology with other grammatical components,
and more specifically with semantics. It further explores morphological issues
related to diachrony and typology as well as morphological systems in eighteen
language families. One of the assets of the third volume is the very same
degree of cohesion and clarity which is maintained throughout the three-volume
set. Additionally, there is rich, cross-linguistic (where necessary)
exemplification of the morphological phenomena/structures under examination.
Diverse topics, morphological phenomena, and approaches/frameworks are
thoroughly presented and supported by reference to well-established research
studies. Given the size of the volume, typos (e.g., p. 1712: 2. FROM
DECOMPOSITIONALITY TO NONDECOMPOSTIONALITY) are inevitable, but these
nonetheless do not lead to confusion. Overall, “The Oxford Encyclopedia of
Morphology” makes a strong contribution to the field and it will satisfy
academics and researchers at different levels of expertise and/or experience.
It is an extremely valuable source of reference for the community of
linguists.   

REFERENCES

Anderson, S. R. (2015). “Morphological change”. In C. Bowern & B. Evans
(Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics (pp. 264-285).
Abingdon: Routledge.  

Gonnerman, L. M., Seidenberg, M. S. & Anderson, E. S. (2007). “Graded semantic
and phonological similarity effects in priming: Evidence for a distributed
connectionist approach to morphology”. Journal of Experimental Psychology:
General 136 (2): 323-345.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Alexandra Galani is a Senior Teaching Fellow in the Department of Primary
Education at the University of Ioannina (Greece). Her main research interests
are in morphology, its interfaces and language teaching and learning.





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