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  Network Morphology: A Defaults-based Theory of Word Structure

  Morphology is particularly challenging, because it is pervaded by irregularity and idiosyncrasy. This book is a study of word structure using a specific theoretical framework known as 'Network Morphology'. It describes the systems of rules which determine the structure of words by construing irregularity as a matter of degree, using examples from a diverse range of languages and phenomena to illustrate. Many languages share common word building strategies and many diverge in interesting ways. These strategies can be understood by distinguishing different notions of 'default'. The Network Morphology philosophy promotes the use of computational implementation to check theories. The accompanying ...Read More

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  The Morphology of 16th-Century Slovak Administrative-Legal Texts and the Question of Diglossia in Pre-Codification Slovakia

  This study is a quantitative investigation of a large corpus of 16th-century Slovak administrative-legal texts that analyzes the degree of morphological normalization in early vernacular writing in the Slovak lands (prior to the codification of standard Slovak in the 18th and 19th centuries). Nine key morphological features are examined, and the patterns of normalization observed are assessed to determine their geographical scope and possible linguistic basis. Accompanying the morphological investigation is a theoretical and methodological discussion and application of Diglossia as a sociolinguistic framework for interpretation of the interaction of written Czech and Slovak in precodification Slovakia. This book thus ...Read More

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  Deponency and Morphological Mismatches

  Deponency is a mismatch between form and function in language that was first described for Latin, where there is a group of verbs (the deponents) which are morphologically passive but syntactically active. This is evidence of a larger problem involving the interface between syntax and morphology: inflectional morphology is supposed to specify syntactic function, but sometimes it sends out the wrong signal. Although the problem is as old as the Western linguistic tradition, no generally accepted account of it has yet been given, and it is safe to say that all current theories of language have been constructed as if ...Read More

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  Inflectional Morphology: A Theory of Paradigm Structure

  A new contribution to linguistic theory, this book presents a formal framework for the analysis of word structure in human language. It sets forth the network of hypotheses constituting Paradigm Function Morphology, a theory of inflectional form whose central insight is that paradigms play an essential role in the definition of a language's system of word structure. The theory comprises several unprecedented claims, chief among which is the claim that a language's realization rules serve as clauses in the definition of a paradigm function, an overarching construct which is indispensable for capturing certain kinds of generalizations about inflectional form. This ...Read More

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  The Question of 'Cultural Language' and Interdialectal Norm in 16th Century Slovakia: A Phonological Analysis of 16th Century Slovak Administrative-Legal Texts

  There is not general agreement among scholars on the degree or type of standardization, or better, normalization, exhibited by Slovak texts before the 18th-19th century codifying efforts of Anton Bernolák, Ľudovít Štúr and their followers. Indeed, disagreement on this issue is greater the earlier the time period under consideration. The present study focuses on the 16th century and the degree and type of standardization/normalization exhibited in a corpus of 152 administrative-legal texts (judicial and municipal records, official correspondence, account books, etc.) from all four major Slovak dialect regions – Moravian, West, Central and East Slovak. The author examines the textual ...Read More

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  The Semantic Variability of Absolute Constructions