Defaults in Morphological Theory Conference
The aim of the conference was to bring together authors and practitioners of the four major theories of morphology which exploit default reasoning in their approaches to word structure.
- Construction Morphology
- Network Morphology
- Paradigm Function Morphology
- Word Grammar
Each theory handles defaults in a different way, and investigates different kinds of morphological data. We believe that sharing the role defaults play in one theory with practitioners of other theories will lead to a better understanding of how defaults can be exploited most effectively in accounting for morphological phenomena, and the interface with syntax and semantics.
As well as papers representing each theory, there were papers on the role of defaults in HPSG, and two general papers on defaults and morphological theory to start and end the two-day conference.
The conference was hosted by the Linguistics Program in the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. We were grateful to the University of Kentucky's College of Arts and Sciences and the Vice President for Research for generous support.