The morphologization of negation constructions in Nalca (Mek, Tanah Papua), or, how nothing easily moves to the middle of a word

The Mek language Nalca has undergone a rapid synthetization of verbal negation by way of two successive stages of asymmetric negation, the first one involving referential zeroing with a verbal noun, the second one reintroducing person marking with an auxiliary in analogy to non-verbal predicates. This development can be traced in texts in the more conservative closely related Mek language Eipo. Referential zeroing originally had the connotation of absolute negation (more than the denial of one specific event). As Nalca negation was integrated into inflectional morphology, it developed some of the hallmarks of autonomous morphology – morphomes and empty morphs. Nalca negation illustrates how grammaticalization and analogy can go hand-in-hand. The fusion of verbal negation is a case of the morphologization of a construction which does not occur in isolation but in concert with other similar processes, together entailing a fragmentation of negation marking. Finally, the Nalca development shows that cases of fusion of verbal negation must be taken into account when dealing with the interplay of existential negation and verbal negation in terms of cyclic processes.

The paradigmatic aspect of compounding and derivation

This study aims to show the dynamic aspect of word-formation paradigms in autonomous morphology by examining the compound marker in Turkish Noun–Noun compounds, as in buz paten-i ‘ice-skate (ice skate-cm)’, and its relation to derivational suffixes. The study proposes a process-based morphological paradigm structure which involves compounding and derivational operations. In this system, the compound marker has a formal paradigmatic function: it creates correct lexeme forms based on bare Noun–Noun compounds, which would otherwise serve as input to certain derivational operations. The current system thus accounts for both permitted and unpermitted suffix combinations involving compounding and the optionality in certain combinations, such as buz paten-ci (-si) ‘a/the ice skater (ice skate-agt-cm)’, where the compound marker may (not) appear in combination with the (derivational) agentive -CI. The study also presents a survey which implies that a group of derivational affixes is in a paradigmatic relation with the compound marker, and all of these affixations constitute alternative paths in a dynamic paradigm structure. The findings of the study are considered to contribute to the understanding of the nature of the autonomous morphological operations and paradigms, which cannot be restricted to the lexicon or manipulated by syntax.

French pronouns in cognition

This chapter applies a cognitive theory of language—Word Grammar—to the analysis of French pronoun clitics, with default inheritance as the underlying logic. It outlines the relevant cognitive apparatus that seems to be available in general cognition, then shows in general terms how this apparatus supports autonomous morphology, default morphology, and the treatment of clitics as words realized by affixes. It then turns to French pronouns, with separate formal network analyses for enclitics, proclitics, and clitic-climbing to auxiliaries (arguing that other kinds of clitic-climbing are syntactic rather than morphosyntactic).

Inflectional classes and containment

Inflectional classes are an instance of autonomous morphology, where expression in form cross-cuts syntactically relevant distinctions. However, most analyses assume some kind of ‘containment’, where choice of inflectional allomorphs is largely restricted to a part of speech. In default inheritance accounts of morphology higher defaults are assumed to correspond to recognizable parts of speech. Data from Archi and Noon indicate that violations of containment are not so implausible, but even here there is a role for principles, such as Network Morphology’s ‘morphological projection’, or Spencer’s ‘morpholexically coherent lexicon’, that entail a relationship between parts of speech and default morphological classes.