Occitan plurals

This paper argues that the evolution of plural marking in Occitan favors an approach to morphology involving morphemes, as assumed traditionally and in a number of current approaches (Hockett 1954; Spencer 1991 for presentations of the alternative, Lieber 1992 for a strict adherence to the concept of morpheme or Halle & Marantz 1993 for a more permissive re-elaboration), rather than an a-morphous analysis, typically associated with autonomous conceptions of morphology (Anderson 1992; Aronoff 1994). If correct, Occitan plurals would represent an interesting case because it is difficult to argue against more permissive and powerful frameworks, which autonomous and a-morphous approaches represent in comparison with morpheme-based theories where morphology ideally reduces to interface effects between syntax, phonology, and the lexicon where morphemes are listed.