The Syntax-Morphology Interface: A Study of Syncretism by Matthew Baerman

Cambridge Studies in Linguistics

by Matthew Baerman

This book provides the first full-length study of inflectional syncretism, presenting a typology of its occurrence across a wide range of languages. The implications of syncretism for the syntax-morphology interface have long been it argues either for an enriched model of feature structure (thereby preserving a direct link between function and form), or for the independence of morphological structure from syntactic structure. The Syntax-Morphology Interface presents a compelling argument for the autonomy of morphology, and the resulting analysis is illustrated in a series of formal case studies within Network Morphology. It will be welcomed by all linguists interested in the relation between words and the larger units of which they are a part.

Paperback

First published August 31, 2005