Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T03:54:28.164Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the hierarchy of naturalness principles in inflectional morphology1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Max W. Wheeler
Max W. Wheeler
Affiliation:
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

1. This article proposes a criticism and elaboration of the theory of Natural Morphology as it relates to inflection and to inflectional change. The theoretical framework I start from is that set out at length in Mayerthaler (1981/1988), Wurzel (1984/1989), Dressler (1987) and Kilani-Schoch (1988). The concept of naturalness involved here combines Prague School notions of markedness (see Andersen, 1989) with more recent typological approaches and a semiotic framework which derives from the work of C. S. Peirce. The goal of naturalness theories in historical linguistics is to identify some constraints on language change (for example, on sound change, analogy and grammaticalization) which are, broadly speaking, functionally motivated, that is, motivated by the nature of human psychology or of human communication. Naturalness theories offer an approach to explanation of Weinreich, Labov & Herzog's (1968; 102, 186) actuation problem. Among other things, Natural Morphology proposes explanatory principles and constraints for analogy.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , March 1993 , pp. 95 - 111
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alibert, Loïs (1935). Gramatica occitana. Toulouse: Societat d'Estudis Occitans.Google Scholar
Andersen, Henning (1980). Morphological change: towards a typology. In Fisiak, Jacek (ed.) Historical morphology. The Hague: Mouton. 1–50.Google Scholar
Andersen, Henning (1989). Markedness theory – the first 150 years. In Tomić, Olga Mišeska (ed.) Markedness in synchrony and diachrony. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 11–46.Google Scholar
Anglade, J. (1921). Grammaire de l'ancien provençal. Paris: Klincksieck.Google Scholar
Badía, Margarit, Antonio, M. (1951). Gramática histórica catalana. Barcelona: Noguer.Google Scholar
Bauer, Laurie (1988). Introducing linguistic morphology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Bittner, Andreas (1988). Is anything ‘more natural’? Considerations on establishing a hierarchy of Naturalness Principles (NP). Linguistische Studien (Series A: Arbeitsberichte) 188. 23–35.Google Scholar
Bray, R. G. A. de (1980a). Guide to the West Slavonic languages (Guide to the Slavonic languages, third edition, revised and expanded, part 2). Columbus, OH: Slavica.Google Scholar
Bray, R. G. A. de (1980b). Guide to the East Slavonic languages (Guide to the Slavonic languages, third edition, revised and expanded, part 3). Columbus, OH: Slavica.Google Scholar
Brero, Camillo (1971). Gramàtica Piemontèisa, 2nd edn.Turin: Ij Brandé.Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan L. (1985). Morphology. Amsterdam: Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carstairs, Andrew (1987). Allomorphy in inflexion. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Carstairs-McCarthy, Andrew (1992). Current morphology. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Dressler, Wolfgang U. (1985). Typological aspects of Natural Morphology. Acta Linguistica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 35. 51–70.Google Scholar
Dressler, Wolfgang U. (ed.) (1987). Leitmotifs in Natural Morphology. Amsterdam: Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Entwistle, W. J. & Morrison, W. A. (1949). Russian and the Slavonic languages. London: Faber & Faber.Google Scholar
Gardette, P. (1972). Le franco-provençal écrit au moyen âge. In Straka, G. (ed.) Les Dialectes de France au moyen âge et aujourd'hui. Paris: Klincksieck. 171–200.Google Scholar
Greenberg, Joseph H. (1966a). Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements. In Greenberg, Joseph H. (ed.) Universals of language, 2nd edn.Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 73–113.Google Scholar
Greenberg, Joseph H. (1966b). Language universals. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Gulsoy, Jospeh (1976). El desenvolupament de les formes del subjuntiu present en català. In Tate, Robert B. & Yates, Alan (eds.) Actes del Tercer Col.loqui Internacional de Llengua i Literatura Catalanes. Oxford: Dolphin. 27–59.Google Scholar
Kilani-Schoch, Marianne (1988). Introduction à la morphologie naturelle. Berne: Lang.Google Scholar
Klausenburger, Jurgen (1992a). The morphology of schwa in the history of French. Lingua 86. 223–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klausenburger, Jurgen (1992b). Explaining French morphology ‘naturally’. Romance Philology 45. 410–422.Google Scholar
Liver, Ricarda (1982). Manuel pratique de romanche sursilvan – vallader. Chur: Lia Rumantscha.Google Scholar
Marchetti, Giuseppe (1967). Lineamenti di grammatica friulana, 2nd edn.Udine: Società Filologica Friulana.Google Scholar
Matthews, P. H. (1991). Morphology, 2nd edn.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayerthaler, Willi (1981/1988). Morphological naturalness. Ann Arbor, MI: Karoma, 1988. (Translation by Janice Seidler of Morphologische Natürlichkeit. Wiesbaden: Akademische Verlaggesellschaft Athenaion, 1981. Page references are to the English translation.)Google Scholar
Mayerthaler, Willi (1987). System-independent morphological naturalness. In Dressler. 25–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nyrop, K. (1960). Grammaire historique de la langue française, vol. II. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.Google Scholar
Pope, Mildred K. (1934). From Latin to Modern French with especial consideration of Anglo-Norman. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Rohlfs, Gerhard (1968). Grammatica storica della lingua italiana e dei suoi dialetti. Morfologia. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Ronjat, Jules (1937). Grammaire istorique des parlers provençaux modernes, vol. III. Montpellier: Société des Langues Romanes. Reprinted 1980, Geneva: Slatkine/Marseille: Lafitte.Google Scholar
Ross, John R. (1982). The sound of meaning. In the Linguistic Society of Korea (ed.) Linguistics in the morning calm. Seoul: Hanshin. 275–290.Google Scholar
Salvioni, Carlo (1975). Fonetica e morfologia del dialetto milanese. Appendix to Carlo Porta: Poesie, a cura di Dante Isella. Milan: Mondadori. 969–1013.Google Scholar
Spencer, Andrew (1991). Morphological theory. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter (1992). Dialect typology and social structure. In Jahr, Ernst Håkon (ed.) Language contact: theoretical and empirical studies. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 195–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vouland, Pierre (1988). Roudanen, Maritime, Gavouot, Nissart: Parlesses clar! Deuxième niveau. Nice: Centre Régional de Documentation Pédagogique de Nice.Google Scholar
Weinreich, Uriel, Labov, William & Herzog, Marvin I. (1968). Empirical foundations for a theory of language change. In Lehmann, W. P. & Malkiel, Y. (eds.) Directions for historical linguistics: a symposium. Austin: University of Texas Press. 95–195.Google Scholar
Werner, Otmar (1987). The aim of morphological change is a good mixture – not a uniform type. In Giacalone Ramat, Anna, Carruba, Onofrio & Bernini, Giuliano (eds.) Papers from the 7th International Conference on Historical Linguistics. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 591–606.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wheeler, Max W. (1980). Analogy and inflectional affix replacement. In Traugott, Elizabeth C. et al. (eds.) Papers from the 4th International Conference on Historical Linguistics. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 273–283.Google Scholar
Wheeler, Max W. (1984). La conjugació valenciana: geografia, diacronia i psicologia. In Miscel.lània Sanchis Guarner, I. Estudis en memòria del professor Manuel Sanchis Guarner: Estudis de llengua i literatura catalanes. Valencia: Universitat de València. 409–419. [2nd rev. edn: Ferrando, Antoni (ed.) Miscel.lània Sanchis Guarner: València/Barcelona: Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat, 1992. III. 425–458.]Google Scholar
Wheeler, Max W. (1993). Changing inflection: verbs in North West Catalan. In Mackenzie, David & Michael, Ian (eds.) Hispanic linguistic studies in honour of F. W. Hodcroft. Llangrannog: Dolphin. 171–206.Google Scholar
Wheeler, Max W. (forthcoming). El contacte, l'aillament, i la tipologia dialectal. In Alemany, Rafael (ed.). Actes del IX Col·loqui Internacional de Lingüística i Filologia Catalanes (Alacant, 9–14 de setember de 1991). Alicante: Universitat d'Alacant.Google Scholar
Wurzel, Wolfgang U. (1984/1989). Inflectional morphology and naturalness. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1989. (Translation of Flexionsmorphologie und Natürlichkeit: ein Beitrag zur morphologischen Theoreibildung. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1984. Page references are to the English translation.)Google Scholar
Wurzel, Wolfgang U. (1987). System-dependent morphological naturalness in inflection. In Dressler. 59–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar