Studies in A-Morphous Morphology

本研究提出了一种自然语言中复杂词的结构方法，该方法将词之间的关系视为由相互作用规则网络定义的，而不是由最小符号（或“语素”）的共享内容定义的。因此，它是“a-morphous”，因为它省略了语素，而不是缺乏形式。将讨论三个一般性问题领域。首先，如果规则而不是语素是单词结构的基础，那么单词的内部非音位形式应该比通常认为的要少得多。研究者将研究这样一种观点，即大多数这样的结构，比如通常与边界或转折的存在有关的结构，以及与短语标记类似的语素排列到更高层次的成分有关的结构，可以被消除。其次，本研究将探讨一种概念，即词形上的一类音系操作具有音系学、词级形态学的特征，并引入音系依赖词形学。将短语级词法视为“短语级词法”对语法、音系和词法等方面的问题都有重要意义。最后，研究者将探索以计算机程序的形式实现这种类型的词结构语法。这样的实现涉及到几个困难的问题，例如正确表示单词的完整自分词和格律结构；健全结构规则相互作用中一般原则与语言特殊原则的平衡以及与形态结构解析相适应的平行程度和性质。在词的层次上研究语法结构的语言学理论——“形态学”——长期以来提出了一些特殊的问题。在某些方面，词的层次上的结构在直觉上似乎比其他层次的语法结构（如句子）更明显，但事实证明，它更难以形成全面、连贯的理论解释。造成这种情况的一个原因是，从一种语言到另一种语言，说话者对单个单词的理解本质上存在巨大差异。这个项目的研究者一直在发展一种相当新颖的形态学理论，它解释了许多在其他理论模型中无法解释的现象。下一阶段的研究将针对不同语言的某些问题案例来测试该理论，并将该理论作为计算机程序实施，以进一步测试其一致性和对各种案例的适用性。

ABSTRACT This research develops an approach to the structure of complex words in natural languages which treats relations among words as defined by a network of interacting rules instead of by their shared content of minimal signs (or 'morphemes'). It is thus 'a-morphous' in dispensing with morphemes rather than in the sense of lacking form. Three general problem areas will be addressed. First, if rules rather than morphemes are the foundation of word structure, words should have much less internal non- phonological form than commonly assumed. The investigator will examine the idea that most such structure, such as that usually associated with the presence of boundaries or junctures, and with a phrase-marker-like arrangement of morphemes into higher level constituents, can be eliminated. Secondly, the research will pursue the notion that a single class of phonological operations on word forms characterizes phonology, word level morphology, and also the introduction of phonologically dependent clitics. Treating clitics as "phrase level morphology" has significant implications for several problems in syntax as well as for phonology and morphology. Finally, the investigator will explore the implementation of grammars of word structure of this type in the form of computer programs. Such implementation involves several difficult issues, such as the proper representation of the full autosegmental and metrical structure of a word; the balance between general and language particular principles in the interaction of sound structural rules; and the degree and nature of parallelism appropriate to the parsing of morphological structure. %%% The linguistic theory of grammatical structure at the level of the word -- "morphology" -- has long presented special problems. In some ways structure at the level of the word seems intuitively more obvious than other levels of grammatical struc- ture, such as the sentence, and yet it has proven much more resistant to a comprehensive, coherent theoretical account. One reason for this is the great diversity from one language to another in the nature of what the speakers perceive as individual words. The investigator in this project has been developing a quite novel theory of morphology, which accounts for a number of phenomena which have been unexplained in other theoretical models. The next phase of the research will test the theory against certain problematic cases from a variety of different languages, and will also implement the theory as a computer program, to enable further testing of its consistency and applicability to a wide variety of cases.