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Non-linear morphology Conclusion

المؤلف:  PAUL R. KROEGER

المصدر:  Analyzing Grammar An Introduction

الجزء والصفحة:  P313-C16

2026-02-11

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Non-linear morphology Conclusion

The IP approach makes it much easier to describe the kinds of nonlinear morphology. It achieves this by setting up a special kind of rule for morphological processes. These rules are potentially powerful enough to describe any sort of modification at all, but this descriptive power is both good and bad. It has the virtue of accounting for all attested morphological patterns in a fairly uniform manner. The problem is that it would be just as easy to write the same kind of rule for patterns which are not attested in any human language. Thus, a major focus of research for this approach is the question of how to define a possible morphological rule.

The IA approach avoids the need to recognize a special class of morpho logical processes. Given the power and complexity of current phonological frameworks, it turns out to be possible to analyze most of the phenomena discussed above in terms of affixation (of a somewhat abstract kind) plus phonological rules. This approach makes it possible to maintain a simpler model of how the different parts of the grammatical system relate to each other. On the other hand, it is not always clear that the “phonological” processes needed to account for these phenomena are, in fact, purely phonological. A few problem areas remain for which no really adequate IA analysis has been found; and in other cases, there is disagreement as to whether the IA approach can provide a truly adequate account of the data. The attempt to overcome these problems has been one of the driving forces in the development of recent phonological theories.