Morphology or phonology?
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Péter Siptár
Abstract
This paper discusses the issue of the Hungarian infinitive suffix that has as many as eight surface shapes occurring in the various inflected forms of the infinitive. The final conclusion is that the issue is best treated in terms of morphology (allomorph selection) and not in terms of morphophonological rules/constraints involving segment insertion and deletion, respectively. The bulk of the discussion is couched in Optimality Theoretic terms but an alternative treatment by Rebrus and Kálmán (2009) is also summarized and tentatively accepted in the final part of the paper. However, their alternative solution only serves to fill in the gaps left by the specific OT implementation proposed here: the general conclusion reached in this paper is not thereby undermined.
Abstract
This paper discusses the issue of the Hungarian infinitive suffix that has as many as eight surface shapes occurring in the various inflected forms of the infinitive. The final conclusion is that the issue is best treated in terms of morphology (allomorph selection) and not in terms of morphophonological rules/constraints involving segment insertion and deletion, respectively. The bulk of the discussion is couched in Optimality Theoretic terms but an alternative treatment by Rebrus and Kálmán (2009) is also summarized and tentatively accepted in the final part of the paper. However, their alternative solution only serves to fill in the gaps left by the specific OT implementation proposed here: the general conclusion reached in this paper is not thereby undermined.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Hungarian v 1
- Eliminating factivity from syntax 29
- Negative quantifiers in Hungarian 65
- Polarity particles in Hungarian 95
- Experimental evidence for recursion in prosody 119
- Trochaic proper government, loose CV, and vowel ~ zero alternation in Hungarian 143
- Ablative causes in Hungarian 167
- Morphology or phonology? 197
- Adpositional preverbs, chain reduction and phases 217
- Overt nominative subjects in infinitival complements in Hungarian 251
- Name index 277
- Subject index 279
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Hungarian v 1
- Eliminating factivity from syntax 29
- Negative quantifiers in Hungarian 65
- Polarity particles in Hungarian 95
- Experimental evidence for recursion in prosody 119
- Trochaic proper government, loose CV, and vowel ~ zero alternation in Hungarian 143
- Ablative causes in Hungarian 167
- Morphology or phonology? 197
- Adpositional preverbs, chain reduction and phases 217
- Overt nominative subjects in infinitival complements in Hungarian 251
- Name index 277
- Subject index 279
