Paradigms

 

We will consider some routine matters of lexical description in the area of morphology. The following partial analysis of English verbs exemplifies a typical lexeme-based approach to the representation of inflectional morphology:

Verb:
    <> == Word
    <mor suffix> == VSuffix:<>.
VSuffix:
    <> == Affix
    <past> == "Suffix_ED:<phn root form>"
    <pres participle> == "Suffix_ing:<phn root form>"
    <pres tense sing three> == "Suffix_S:<phn root form>".
Walk:
    <> == Verb
    <phn syl1 onset> == w
    <phn syl1 peak>  == O:
    <phn syl1 coda>  == k.

Assuming appropriate definitions for the three suffix nodes, this analysis provides us with the following paradigm for (regular) English verb inflection:

Walk:
    <mor word pres participle>       = w O: k I N
    <mor word pres tense sing one>   = w O: k
    <mor word pres tense sing two>   = w O: k
    <mor word pres tense sing three> = w O: k s
    <mor word pres tense plur one>   = w O: k
    <mor word pres tense plur two>   = w O: k
    <mor word pres tense plur three> = w O: k
    <mor word past participle>       = w O: k t
    <mor word past tense sing one>   = w O: k t
    ...
    <mor word past tense plur three> = w O: k t.

Turning now to German, which has a much richer inflectional system than English, the three adjective declensions are commonly called weak, mixed and strong. The weak declension endings apply to adjectives occurring after one of a set of articles including the definite article. What we want to say about the weak declension is that the default form is -en, that the nominative singular coda is null, that accusative forms default to their nominative counterparts, but that the accusative singular masculine form employs the general default form (i.e., -en). We can say this as follows:

Weak:
    <> == Suffix_en
    <phn syl1 coda nom sing>      == Null
    <phn root form acc>           == "<phn root form nom>"
    <phn root form acc sing masc> == Suffix_en.

The definition for this declension node consists of just four rules. The first, and most general, is a (default) rule of exponence that maps any morphosyntactic specification into an -en suffix, inherited from the node for that suffix. This is then partly overridden by the second, more specific, rule that has the ultimate effect of mapping nominative singulars to the -e form. It does this by overriding the definition of the coda which will otherwise be inherited from Suffix_en (as is the peak). The first rule is also overridden by the third rule which is a rule of referral that says that accusatives are to be realized in the same way as the corresponding nominatives. This rule is, in turn, partly overridden by the highly specific fourth and final realization rule. There are twenty four distinct relevant morphosyntactic specifications (4 cases $\times$ 3 genders $\times$ 2 numbers) in the domain of the Weak node and these four rules map all twenty four to -e or -en, as appropriate.

Exercise 6028

By analogy with the default statement of English Verb inflection given above, define (default) plural inflection for the English Noun.

Exercise 6029

Add a rule for passive forms to the English verb analysis. Are there any lexical exceptions to your rule?

Exercise 6030

Define the mixed and strong declensions for German adjectives.