This series provides a broad forum for researchers working on any area of morphology, from detailed descriptive studies through to quantitative analyses, simulations and models of learning and use. Within the context of the series, the term ‘morphology’ is also construed broadly, covering a wide range of form variation, from grammatically relevant sub-phonemic contrasts to combinations of free forms with distributional or paradigmatic characteristics of morphological formations. We invite submission from correspondingly diverse descriptive and analytical traditions, including (but not restricted to):
By bringing work within established traditions together with emerging paradigms of research in morphology, the series aims to promote cutting-edge studies that advance the understanding of the structure, learning and use of form variation in language.
What is semantic transparency, why is it important, and which factors play a role in its assessment? This work approaches these questions by investigating English compound nouns. The first part of the book gives an overview of semantic transparency in the analysis of compound nouns, discussing its role in models of morphological processing and differentiating it from related notions. After a chapter on the semantic analysis of complex nominals, it closes with a chapter on previous attempts to model semantic transparency. The second part introduces new empirical work on semantic transparency, introducing two different sets of statistical models for compound transparency. In particular, two semantic factors were explored: the semantic relations holding between compound constituents and the role of different readings of the constituents and the whole compound, operationalized in terms of meaning shifts and in terms of the distribution of specifc readings across constituent families. All semantic annotations used in the book are freely available.
View lessThis collection of papers on phrasal compounding is part of a bigger project whose aims are twofold: First, it seeks to broaden the typological perspective by providing data for as many different languages as possible to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon itself. Second, based on these data which clearly show interaction between syntax and morphology it aims to discuss theoretical models which deal with this kind of interaction in different ways. Models like Generative Grammar assume components of grammar and a clear-cut distinction between the lexicon (often including morphology) and grammar. Other models, like construction grammar, do not assume such components and are rather based on a lexicon including constructs. A comparison of these models on the basis of this phenomenon on the morphology- syntax interface makes it possible to assess their descriptive and explanatory power.
View lessDiese Arbeit quantifiziert und analysiert die absolute Komplexität in der Nominalflexion von 17 alemannischen Dialekten, der deutschen Standardsprache sowie des Mittel- und Althochdeutschen. Als Datengrundlage dienen Ortsgrammatiken. Die theoretische Grundlage bilden LFG (Lexical-Functional Grammar) und die inferentielle-realisierende Morphologie, wovon abgeleitet wird, was ein System komplexer bzw. simpler macht. Auf diesen Modellen basiert auch die eigens entwickelte Methode zur Messung der morphologischen Komplexität. Die Variation in der Komplexität der Nominalflexion wird anhand der folgenden Faktoren analysiert: Diachronie, Isolation, Kontakt, Standardisierung und Dialektgruppen.
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