Deconstructing Morphology: Word Formation in Syntactic Theory

Description
One of the major contributions to theoretical linguistics during the twentieth century has been an advancement of our understanding that the information-bearing units which make up human language are organized on a hierarchy of levels. It has been an overarching goal of research since the 1930s to determine the precise nature of those levels and what principles guide interactions among them.

Linguists have typically posited phonological, morphological, and syntactic levels, each with its own distinct vocabulary and organizing principles, but in Deconstructing Morphology Rochelle Lieber persuasively challenges the existence of a morphological level of language. Her argument, that rules and vocabulary claimed to belong to the morphological level in fact belong to the levels of syntax and phonology, follows the work of Sproat, Toman, and others. Her study, however, is the first to draw jointly on Chomsky's Government-Binding Theory of syntax and on recent research in phonology.

Ranging broadly over data from many languages—including Tagalog, English, French, and Dutch—Deconstructing Morphology addresses key questions in current morphological and phonological research and provides an innovative view of the overall architecture of grammar.

The Prosody-Morphology Interface

Description
In many languages, word formation is restricted by principles of prosody that organize speech sounds into larger units such as the syllable. Written by an international team of leading linguists in the field of prosodic morphology, this book examines a range of key issues in the interaction of word formation and prosody. It provides an explanation for nonconcatenative morphology that occurs in different forms (such as reduplication) in many languages, by an interaction of independent general principles of prosodic and morphological well-formedness.

What is Morphology (Fundamentals of Linguistics)

Review
"Aronoff and Fudeman have provided an extremely pleasant tour of the issues in modern morphological theory for beginning students. The rich collection of exercises will be a godsend to instructors and students alike, and the thread of discussion of a single language throughout the book is a brilliant stroke that other texts should emulate."
Stephen R. Anderson, Yale University

"This unusual book combines a basic start on morphology with an introduction to Kujamaat Jóola. It is a fine addition to teaching materials on morphology: a book for beginners to use with a teacher, yet one from which any linguist could learn. The authors intend students to develop ‘a lasting taste for morphology’. I think many will."

Greville Corbett, University of Surrey, Guildford

"Morphology has its own organizing principles, distinct from those of syntax, phonology, and the lexicon. Too many morphology textbooks obscure this fascinating fact, but Aronoff and Fudeman refreshingly make it the cornerstone of their exposition."

Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy, University of Canterbury

The Handbook of Morphology (Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics)

"This impressive volume is the first handbook of morphology. It's pioneering status is confirmed by an unprecedented range of topics, not to be found in any existing monograph in the domain of morphology ... I do not know any other book which offers such easy access to all the basics of modern morphology and to such a wide variety of topics." W.U. Dressler, University of Vienna

"Strongly theoretic, the handbook is none the less pleasingly rich in carefully explored data, and fits in well with the other volumes in the series of Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics" Forum for Modern Language Skills, Vol 39, 2003

Review : By verafides "Lazy Eye
You know why nobody has ever reviewed this book on Amazon? Because shoppers interested in a gigantic collection of academic papers on morphological theory are already AWARE of what it is, and don't need to be told about it. And anyone else will never, in fact, look at this review. So it's entirely a bizarre anachronism - a review that nobody will read, that has nothing useful to say.

This is, of course, a wonderful compilation of papers on morphology. It's chocked full of data (and yes, Mr. Zwicky, I'm consciously using 'chocked'), and tons of careful analysis. Most of the papers are theory-neutral, or nearly theory-neutral, and thus it is actually a nice general reference piece, since it won't become outdated. I think this was the general goal that the editors were shooting for, and they met it fabulously. When I want to know how different languages do something, for example Noun Incorporation, I can open up this book and have piles of lovely examples with intelligent commentary. Morphology being the mess that it is, there's not as much really clear organization as I'd like (lots of "Some languages do this, but others kind of do that, and then there's this thing - that we don't know WHAT...to do with") - but that's more to do with the state of morphology than the state of this book. The syntax, phonology, and semantics books in this series are all beautifully organized, and, paradoxically, much more apt to go out of date.

But you probably already know this. If you didn't, you wouldn't be looking at this book - you'd be off digging up a used copy of "M is for Mush-For-Brains" by Sue Grafton-Higgins Clark. And then you wouldn't have any clue what I'm talking about, and probably too busy being led astray by William Safire or Richard Lederer to bother trying to find out.

This is only one book in the series - it is a behemoth, though, so get a cupcake for the mailman when he delivers it to you.

Morphology: Word Structure in Generative Grammar

Details * Paperback * Publisher: John Benjamins Pub Co (January 1990) * Language: English * ISBN-10: 155619126X * ISBN-13: 978-1556191268 * Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches

Morphology

Morphology is the study of word formation. The formation of word can be one or more smaller components. The components forming a word are called morphemes. Morphemes can be divided into free morphemes and bound morphemes. A free morpheme is a morpeheme which can stand alone and has lexical meaning. A bound morpheme is a morpeheme which cannot stand alone. It does not have meaning in isolation. It has meaning when it is combined into a free morpeheme. The term morphology is borrowed from biological scienece which refers to the stady of shapes. In Linguistics this term refers to the study of the shape of words or the forms of word.