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On templates

  • Alain Kihm
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The Form of Structure, the Structure of Form
This chapter is in the book The Form of Structure, the Structure of Form

Abstract

Severe limitations apply to the sound shape of roots and stems, yielding ‘templates’ (in one sense of the term). Templaticity is a property of human language. Two kinds, default and nondefault, ought to be distinguished, however. Default templaticity amounts to keeping the bulk and phonetic complexity of roots and stems within narrow limits. Nondefault templaticity is more specific (cf. Semitic roots) and often considered to partake of the grammatical kit that builds up the elements of the language. The present paper challenges this view. Adopting a Word and Paradigm perspective, it argues that nondefault templates do not belong to the grammars children acquire, but they are abstracted from the paradigms they assimilate in order to master the word-forms realizing the lexemes of their language.

Abstract

Severe limitations apply to the sound shape of roots and stems, yielding ‘templates’ (in one sense of the term). Templaticity is a property of human language. Two kinds, default and nondefault, ought to be distinguished, however. Default templaticity amounts to keeping the bulk and phonetic complexity of roots and stems within narrow limits. Nondefault templaticity is more specific (cf. Semitic roots) and often considered to partake of the grammatical kit that builds up the elements of the language. The present paper challenges this view. Adopting a Word and Paradigm perspective, it argues that nondefault templates do not belong to the grammars children acquire, but they are abstracted from the paradigms they assimilate in order to master the word-forms realizing the lexemes of their language.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part 1. Vowels
  5. Lowering harmony in Bantu 13
  6. On vowel harmony and vowel reduction 37
  7. Apophony and chiming words in Malay 57
  8. Understanding what has happened with the ablaut 67
  9. Part 2. Syllables
  10. On the licensing of glides 85
  11. Coda constraints on tone 103
  12. C/V interactions in strict CV 123
  13. What does the Moroccan Malħun meter compute, and how? 139
  14. Part 3. Templates
  15. Regularities in irregular Chaha verbs 163
  16. Overlapping morphologies in Arabic hypocoristics 177
  17. Staying away from the weak left edge 193
  18. The Modern Hebrew template tQuLa in light of Jean Lowenstamm’s work 209
  19. Templates and representations in phonology 219
  20. On templates 235
  21. Part 4. The Phonology-Syntax interface
  22. The Ins and Outs of phonology 255
  23. Phase cycles, φ-cycles, and phonological (In)activity 271
  24. Sepp vs Paradigms 287
  25. On Plurals, noun phrase and num(ber) in Moroccan Arabic and Djibouti Somali 303
  26. The initial CV 315
  27. Part 5. Selected Issues in Afro-Asiatic (Morpho-)Syntax and Semantics
  28. Causatives, anticausatives and lexicalization 333
  29. A note on labeling, Berber states and VSO order 349
  30. The interpretation of Construct-State morphology 361
  31. Index 375
https://doi.org/10.1075/lfab.12.18kih

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part 1. Vowels
  5. Lowering harmony in Bantu 13
  6. On vowel harmony and vowel reduction 37
  7. Apophony and chiming words in Malay 57
  8. Understanding what has happened with the ablaut 67
  9. Part 2. Syllables
  10. On the licensing of glides 85
  11. Coda constraints on tone 103
  12. C/V interactions in strict CV 123
  13. What does the Moroccan Malħun meter compute, and how? 139
  14. Part 3. Templates
  15. Regularities in irregular Chaha verbs 163
  16. Overlapping morphologies in Arabic hypocoristics 177
  17. Staying away from the weak left edge 193
  18. The Modern Hebrew template tQuLa in light of Jean Lowenstamm’s work 209
  19. Templates and representations in phonology 219
  20. On templates 235
  21. Part 4. The Phonology-Syntax interface
  22. The Ins and Outs of phonology 255
  23. Phase cycles, φ-cycles, and phonological (In)activity 271
  24. Sepp vs Paradigms 287
  25. On Plurals, noun phrase and num(ber) in Moroccan Arabic and Djibouti Somali 303
  26. The initial CV 315
  27. Part 5. Selected Issues in Afro-Asiatic (Morpho-)Syntax and Semantics
  28. Causatives, anticausatives and lexicalization 333
  29. A note on labeling, Berber states and VSO order 349
  30. The interpretation of Construct-State morphology 361
  31. Index 375
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