- Oxford Handbooks in Linguistics
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- The Contributors
- Introduction: Theory and Theories in Morphology
- A Short History of Morphological Theory
- Theoretical Issues in Word Formation
- Theoretical Issues in Inflection
- Structuralism
- Early Generative Grammar
- Later Generative Grammar and Beyond: Lexicalism
- Distributed Morphology
- Minimalism in Morphological Theories
- Optimality Theory and Prosodic Morphology
- Morphology in Lexical-Functional Grammar and Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar
- Natural Morphology
- Word and Paradigm Morphology
- Paradigm Function Morphology
- Network Morphology
- Word Grammar Morphology
- Morphology in Cognitive Grammar
- Construction Morphology
- Relational Morphology in the Parallel Architecture
- Canonical Typology
- Morphological Theory and Typology
- Morphological Theory and Creole Languages
- Morphological Theory and Diachronic Change
- Morphological Theory and Synchronic Variation
- Morphological Theory and First Language Acquisition
- Morphological Theory and Second Language Acquisition
- Morphological Theory and Psycholinguistics
- Morphological Theory and Neurolinguistics
- Morphological Theory and Computational Linguistics
- Morphological Theory and Sign Languages
- References
- Language Index
- Index of Names
- General Index
- Oxford Handbooks in Linguistics
Abstract and Keywords
This chapter deals with morphological variation in synchronic terms. Variation is treated as a phenomenon triggered by principally language-internal causes, although it may often result from the interference of language external factors, such as contact with another language. Arguments are drawn from derivation, compounding, and inflection, and components such as reduction of allomorphy, paradigmatic leveling, selectional properties, headedness, and generally innate features of word-formation, proper to a particular language, are shown to be behind variation. Illustration is provided with examples from mainly Modern Greek, a fusional language which is rich in morphological structures and displays variation in the entire range of morphological processes. It is proposed that the examination of varying forms sheds light on the primacy of certain linguistic tendencies in a specific language and can give hints on possible linguistic changes.
Keywords: Compounding, Derivation, Headedness, Heteroclisis, Inflection, language contact, paradigmatic leveling
Angela Ralli is Professor of General Linguistics and Chair of the Department of Philology at the University of Patras (Greece). She has studied Linguistics at the University of Montreal (BA, MA, PhD), speaks fluently four languages (Greek, English, French, and Italian), and is interested in morphology and dialectal morphological variation. She has several publications on morphology (compounding, derivation, and inflection), and is a permanent member on the scientific board of the European Network for Linguistic Morphology, and the Mediterranean Morphology Meeting.
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- Oxford Handbooks in Linguistics
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- The Contributors
- Introduction: Theory and Theories in Morphology
- A Short History of Morphological Theory
- Theoretical Issues in Word Formation
- Theoretical Issues in Inflection
- Structuralism
- Early Generative Grammar
- Later Generative Grammar and Beyond: Lexicalism
- Distributed Morphology
- Minimalism in Morphological Theories
- Optimality Theory and Prosodic Morphology
- Morphology in Lexical-Functional Grammar and Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar
- Natural Morphology
- Word and Paradigm Morphology
- Paradigm Function Morphology
- Network Morphology
- Word Grammar Morphology
- Morphology in Cognitive Grammar
- Construction Morphology
- Relational Morphology in the Parallel Architecture
- Canonical Typology
- Morphological Theory and Typology
- Morphological Theory and Creole Languages
- Morphological Theory and Diachronic Change
- Morphological Theory and Synchronic Variation
- Morphological Theory and First Language Acquisition
- Morphological Theory and Second Language Acquisition
- Morphological Theory and Psycholinguistics
- Morphological Theory and Neurolinguistics
- Morphological Theory and Computational Linguistics
- Morphological Theory and Sign Languages
- References
- Language Index
- Index of Names
- General Index
- Oxford Handbooks in Linguistics