Cover not available

In:Morphological Metatheory
Edited by Daniel Siddiqi and Heidi Harley
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 229] 2016
► pp. 95–120

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Syncretism in paradigm function morphology and distributed morphology

 | Georgetown University
Published online: 29 June 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.229.04kra
In the development of morphological theory, restrictiveness and maximal empirical coverage of the facts must be carefully balanced. In this discussion chapter, I use the empirical phenomenon of syncretism to explore the restrictiveness/coverage dichotomy in two morphological theories: Distributed Morphology (DM) and Paradigm Function Morphology 2 (PFM2), drawing on Stump (this vol.) and Trommer (this vol.). As previous work has observed, the theories contrast in their approach to this dichotomy: DM tends towards restrictiveness, whereas PFM2 tends towards maximal empirical coverage. I show that syncretism is a useful tool for exploring the advantages and pitfalls of these positions, and I identify open questions for both theories whose answers would contribute to resolving this dichotomy.
References (64)
References
Aikhenvald, Alexandra. 2004. Gender and noun class. In Morphology: An International Handbook on Inflection and Word-formation, Geert Booij, Christian Lehmann, Joachim Mugdan & Stavros Skopetas (eds), 1031–1044. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Albright, Adam & Fuß, Eric. 2012. Syncretism. In The Morphology and Phonology of Exponence, Jochen Trommer (ed.), 236–288. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aronoff, Mark. 1994. Morphology by Itself: Stems and Inflectional Classes. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Arregi, Karlos & Nevins, Andrew. 2012. Morphotactics: Basque Auxiliaries and the Structure of Spellout. New York NY: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bachrach, Asaf & Nevins, Andrew. 2008. Introduction: approaching inflectional identity. In Inflectional Identity, Asaf Bachrach & Andrew Nevins (eds), 1–28. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baerman, Matthew. 2004. Directionality and (un)natural classes in morphology. Language 80: 807–827. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. Typology and the formal modeling of syncretism. In Yearbook of Morphology 2004, Geert Booij & Jaap van Marle (eds), 41–72. Dordrecht: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007a. Syncretism. Language and Linguistics Compass 1: 539–551. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007b. Morphological reversals. Journal of Linguistics 43: 33–61. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baerman, Matthew, Brown, Dunstan & Corbett, Greville G. 2005. The Syntax-Morphology Interface: A Study of Syncretism. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Béjar, Susana & Currie Hall, Daniel. 1999. Marking markedness: The underlying order of diagonal syncretisms. Paper presented at the Eastern States Conference on Linguistics , University of Connecticut.
Bobaljik, Jonathan David. 2002. Syncretism without paradigms: Remarks on Williams 1981, 1994. In Yearbook of Morphology 2001, Geert Booij & Jaap van Marle (eds), 53–85. Dordrecht: Foris. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. Distributed Morphology. Ms, University of Connecticut.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bonet, Eulalia. 1991. Morphology after Syntax: Pronominal Clitics in Romance. Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.
Boyeldieu, Pascal 1982. Deux études laal (Moyen-Chari, Chad). Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Calabrese, Andrea. 2008. On absolute and contextual syncretism: Remarks on the structure of case paradigms and on how to derive them. In Inflectional Identity, Asaf Bachrach & Andrew Nevins (eds), 156–205. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. Investigations on markedness, syncretism and zero exponence in morphology. Morphology 21: 283–325. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Corbett, Greville G. 1991. Gender. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. Number. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. Agreement. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. Features. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Doron, Edit & Khan, Geoffrey. 2012. The typology of morphological ergativity in Neo-Aramaic. Lingua 122: 225–240. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Embick, David & Noyer, Rolf. 2001. Movement operations after syntax. Linguistic Inquiry 32: 555–595. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007. Distributed Morphology and the syntax/morphology interface. In The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Interfaces, Gillian Ramchand & Charles Reiss (eds), 289–324. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Frampton, John. 2002. Syncretism, impoverishment, and the structure of person features. In CLS 38: The Main Session. Papers from the 38th Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, Mary Andronis, Erin Debenport, Anne Pycha, Keiko Yoshimura (eds), 207–222. Chicago IL: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Golla, Victor. 1970. Hupa Grammar. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.
Halle, Morris. 1997. Distributed Morphology: Impoverishment and fission. In Papers at the Interface [MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 30], Benjamin Bruening, Yoonjung Kang & Martha McGinnis (eds), 425–449. Cambridge MA: MITWPL.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halle, Morris & Marantz, Alec. 1993. Distributed morphology and the pieces of inflection. In The View from Building 20. Essays in Linguistics in Honor of Sylvain Bromberger, Ken Hale & Samuel Jay Keyser (eds), 111–176. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harbour, Daniel. 2003. The Kiowa case for feature insertion. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 21: 543–578. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. “Not plus isn’t not there”: Bivalence in person, number and gender. In Distributed Morphology Today, Ora Matushansky & Alec Marantz (eds), 135–150. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. Paucity, abundance, and the theory of number. Language 90: 185–229. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harley, Heidi. 2008. When is a syncretism more than a syncretism? Impoverishment, metasyncretism and underspecification. In Phi Theory, Daniel Harbour, David Adger & Susana Béjar (eds), 251–294. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harley, Heidi & Noyer, Rolf. 1999. Distributed Morphology (State-of-the-Article). Glot International 4: 3–9.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harley, Heidi & Ritter, Elizabeth. 2002. Person and number in pronouns: A feature-geometric analysis. Language 78: 482–526. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd. 1982. African noun class systems. In Apprehension: Das Sprachliche Erfassen von Gegnständen, I: Bereich und Ordnung der Phänomene, Hansjakob Seiler & Christian Lehmann (eds), 189–216. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hetzron, Robert. 1967. Agaw numerals and incongruence in Semitic. Journal of Semitic Studies 12: 169–197. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jakobson, Roman. 1936. Contribution to the general theory of case: General meanings of the Russian Cases. In Roman Jakobson: Russian and Slavic Grammar, 1984, Linda R. Waugh & Morris Halle (eds), 59–103. Berlin: Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kramer, Ruth. 2009. Definite Markers, Phi-features, and Agreement: A Morphosyntactic Investigation of the Amharic DP. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Santa Cruz.
. 2015. The Morphosyntax of Gender. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lahne, Antje. 2007. On deriving polarity effects. In 1 2 Many: One-to-Many Relations in Grammar, Jochen Trommer & Andreas Opitz (eds), 1–22. Leipzig: University of Leipzig.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Layton, Bentley. 2011. A Coptic Grammar, 3rd edn. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lecarme, Jacqueline. 2002. Gender “polarity:” theoretical aspects of Somali nominal morphology. In Many Morphologies, Paul Boucher & Marc Plénat (eds), 109–141. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leslau, Wolf. 1995. Reference Grammar of Amharic. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Müller, Gereon. 2004. A Distributed Morphology approach to syncretism in Russian noun inflection. In Proceedings of Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics 12, Olga Arnaudova, Wayles Browne, Maria Luisa Rivero & Dejan Stojanovic (eds), 353–374. Ann Arbor MI: Michigan Slavic Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007. Extended exponence by enrichment: Argument encoding in German, Archi and Timacua. Penn Working Papers in Linguistics 13: 253–266.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Review of Baerman, Brown and Corbett 2005. Word Structure 1: 199–232. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nevins, Andrew. 2011. Marked targets versus marked triggers and impoverishment of the dual. Linguistic Inquiry 42: 413–444. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Noyer, Rolf. 1998. Impoverishment theory and morphosyntactic markedness. In Morphology and its Relation to Phonology and Syntax, Steven G. LaPointe, Diane K. Brentari & Patrick M. Farrell (eds), 264–285. Stanford CA: CSLI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pullum, Geoffrey K. & Zwicky, Arnold M. 1986. Phonological resolution of syntactic feature conflict. Language 62: 751–773. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Saeed, John. 1999. Somali. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sridhar, S.R. 1990. Kannada. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stewart, Thomas & Stump, Gregory T. 2007. Paradigm function morphology and the morphology-syntax interface. In The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Interfaces, Gillian Ramchand & Charles Reiss (eds), 383–421. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stump, Gregory T. 1993. On rules of referral. Language 69: 449–479. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2001. Inflectional Morphology: A Theory of Paradigm Structure. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2002. Morphological and syntactic paradigms: arguments for a theory of paradigm linkage. In Yearbook of Morphology 2001, Geert Booij & Jaap van Marle (eds), 147–180. Dordrecht: Foris. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. Heteroclisis and paradigm linkage. Language 82: 279–322. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007. A non-canonical pattern of deponency and its limitations. In Deponency and Morphological Mismatches [Proceedings of the British Academy 145], Matthew Baerman, Greville G. Corbett, Dunstan Brown & Andrew Hippisley (eds), 71–95. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. The formal and functional architecture of inflectional morphology. In Morphology and the Architecture of Grammar: Online Proceedings of the Eighth Mediterranean Morphology Meeting, Angela Ralli, Geert Booij, Sergio Scalise & Athanasios Karasimos (eds), 245–70. <[URL]>Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016. Paradigms at the interface of a lexeme’s syntax and semantics with its inflectional morphology. In Morphological Metatheory [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 229], Daniel Siddiqi & Heidi Harley (eds). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trommer, Jochen. 2016. A postsyntactic morphome cookbook. In Morphological Metatheory [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 229], Daniel Siddiqi & Heidi Harley (eds). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Watanabe, Akira. 2013. Person-number interaction: Impoverishment and natural classes. Linguistic Inquiry 44: 469–492. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Williams, Edwin. 1994. Remarks on lexical knowledge. Lingua 92: 7–34. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wunderlich, Dieter. 2004. Is there any need for the concept of directional syncretism? In Explorations in Nominal Inflection, Lutz Gunkel, Gereon Müller & Gisela Zifonun (eds), 373–395. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zwicky, Arnold. 2000. Describing syncretism: Rules of referral after fifteen years. Presentation at the 26th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, University of California, Berkeley.
Cited by (8)

Cited by eight other publications

Duncan, Daniel
2025. 1255 Variation and the English participle/preterite relation. In English Sociosyntax, ► pp. 125 ff. DOI logo
Hein, Johannes & Andrew Murphy
2025. Directional syncretism without directional rules. Morphology 35:3 ► pp. 367 ff. DOI logo
DOLATIAN, HOSSEP
2024. Fluctuations in allomorphy domains: Applying Stump 2010 to Armenian ordinal numerals. Journal of Linguistics 60:3 ► pp. 563 ff. DOI logo
Müller, Gereon
2024. Pre-syntactic impoverishment: Premature exponence in Harmonic Serialism. Word Structure 17:3 ► pp. 134 ff. DOI logo
Hein, Johannes & Philipp Weisser
2023. Syncretism. In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Morphology, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Alqarni, Muteb
2021. No Gender Polarity in Arabic Numeral Phrases. Linguistic Inquiry 52:3 ► pp. 441 ff. DOI logo
Kramer, Ruth & Anbessa Teferra
2019. Gender switch in Sidaama. Brill’s Journal of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics 12:2 ► pp. 286 ff. DOI logo
Spencer, Andrew
2019. Manufacturing consent over Distributed Morphology. Word Structure 12:2 ► pp. 208 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 22 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue