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Title:Analogy: The relation between lexicon and grammar
Authors:Iwona Kraska-Szlenk
Abstract:This work examines the mechanism of analogy in the context of language use and from the perspective of Optimality Theoretic formal model. I argue that language usage criteria, such as type and token frequency, underlie an abstract concept of “grammar”, but are not entirely synonymous with it. In the present proposal, the two are interrelated through a system of extended correspondence constraints, whose ranking with respect to each other and to markedness constraints represents “phonologization” of language use. I concentrate on inflectional paradigms, since this is the area least understood from the theoretical perspective. The study stresses an active role of the lexicon in shaping a language grammar. Due to the dynamic character of lexicon-grammar interaction, analogical changes are not only interpretable, but to some extent predictable on the basis of historical and synchronic data.
The work is organized as follows. Chapter 1 presents a brief summary of the earlier research on analogy and an outline of the present model. Chapters 2-4 provide empirical evidence for the role of frequency in analogy using synchronic and diachronic evidence of a detailed case study of three vocalic alternations in Polish declensional paradigms: the e~o/a alternation (ch. 2), the o~u alternation (ch. 3) and the e~zero alternation (ch. 4). Chapter 5 discusses the correlation between analogy and semantic distance which leads to observed asymmetries between inflection and derivation, as well as between nouns and verbs. The data come from Polish and from modern Arabic dialects, including Moroccan for which the present analysis is contrasted with that of McCarthy (2005). The following two chapters treat cases of “pseudo-analogy” when paradigmatic leveling comes as a by-product rather than a goal itself. The correlation between frequency of a linguistic unit and its size (“Zipf’s laws”, ch. 6) may trigger allomorphy (illustrated with the material of Swahili prefixal morphophonology), but may also lead to leveling (exemplified by a verbal paradigm in sub-standard Polish). Apparent analogy caused by hypercorrection, or “revealing of the underlying representation” (ch. 7), is corroborated with the data of a historical change in Yiddish and a similar sporadic process taking place in Polish. The final chapter 8 contains some comments on other theoretical issues, such as the problem of unidirectionality of analogical mapping in derivational morphology (illustrated with English stress), the role of the morphophonological template in linguistic analysis and the implication of the present model for understanding of the lexicon-grammar connection.
Type:Paper/tech report
Area/Keywords:phonology, morphology
Article:Version 1