The Morphome Debate

This volume surveys the current debate on the morphome, bringing together experts from different linguistic fields--morphology, phonology, semantics, typology, historical linguistics--and from different theoretical backgrounds, including both proponents and critics of autonomous morphology. The concept of the morphome is one of the most influential but contentious ideas in contemporary morphology. The term is typically used to denote a pattern of exponence lacking phonological, syntactic, or semantic motivation, and putative examples of morphomicity are frequently put forward as evidence for the existence of a purely morphological level of linguistic representation. Central to the volume is the need to attain a deeper understanding of morphomic patterns, developing stringent diagnostics of their existence, exploring the formal grammatical devices required to characterize them adequately, and assessing their implications for language acquisition and change. The extensive empirical evidence is drawn from a wide range of languages, including Archi, German, Kayardild, Latin and its descendants, Russian, Sanskrit, Selkup, Ulwa, and American Sign Language.

As the first book to examine morphomic patterns from such a diverse range of perspectives and on such a broad cross-linguistic basis, The Morphome Debate will be of interest to researchers of all theoretical persuasions in morphology and related linguistic disciplines.

Ana R. Luis is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Coimbra. The central focus of her research has been Portuguese inflectional morphology and cliticization, with a special interest in the morphology of Portuguese contact varieties. She has published both as author and co-author on the morphology-syntax interaction, Portuguese inflectional morphology, the morphology of creole languages, and cliticization.

Ricardo Bermudez-Otero is Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and English Language at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on the morphosyntax-phonology and phonology-phonetics interfaces, with particular attention to diachronic issues. He works predominantly on English and on Romance. His general approach to morphology is outlined in 'The architecture of grammar and the division of labour in exponence', in Trommer (ed.), The Morphology and Phonology of Exponence (OUP 2012).

Notes on contributors
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
1. Introduction, Ana R. Luis and Ricardo Bermudez-Otero
Part I: Morphomic or not? Diagnosing morphomicity
2. Unnatural kinds, Mark Aronoff
3. Some lessons from history: Morphomes in diachrony, Martin Maiden
4. Morphomic splits, Greville G. Corbett
5. Thoughts on diagnosing morphomicity: A case study from Ulwa, Andrew Koontz-Garboden
6. The morphome vs. similarity-based syncretism: Latin t-stem derivatives, Donca Steriade
Part II: Autonomous or not? Analysing morphomic patterns
7. Morphomic categories and the realization of morphosyntactic properties, Gregory Stump
8. Stems, the morphome, and meaning-bearing inflection, Andrew Spencer
9. Kayardild inflectional morphotactics is morphomic, Erich R. Round
10. Morphomic stem extension and the German n-declension, Paolo Acquaviva
11. On the distribution of stem alternants: Separation and its limits, David Embick
Retrospect and prospect
12. A view of the morphome debate, Ricardo Bermudez-Otero and Ana R. Luis
References
Index