Syntax within the Word: Economy, allomorphy, and argument selection in Distributed Morphology

Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today #138

by Daniel Siddiqi

Syntax within the Word provides a multifaceted look into the syntactic framework of Distributed Morphology (DM) within the Minimalist program. For those unfamiliar with the theory, this monograph provides an overview of DM and argues its strengths. For those more familiar with DM, this monograph provides analyses of familiar data much of which has not been treated within the argument selection, stem allomorphy and suppletion, nominal compounds in English ( feet-first vs. *heads-first ), and the structure of the verb phrase. This monograph also proposes a future for the theory in the form of revisions to DM the elimination of readjustment rules, a new economy constraint (Minimize Exponence) that triggers fusion of functional heads, and a feature blocking system.

138 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Othman]

the book advocates the author's PhD dissertation topic, Minimize Exponence, which is the notion that the most economical derivation is the one that maximally realizes all grammatical features.