Part 1: Foundations of morphological theory

 
Chapter 1: Two morphologies or one? Inflection versus word-formation
Chapter 2: The minimal sign: morpheme or lexeme
Chapter 3: The nature of morphological rules
Chapter 4: Productivity
 
The first part of the book lays the theoretical foundations upon which the balance of the book rests. It begins by considering the role of morphology in a language’s grammar, outlining differences and similarities between the roles of inflection and word-formation (the latter encompassing both derivation and compounding). Implications are drawn out for a discussion (taken up in later chapters) of the place of morphology in a language’s grammar. Another chapter addresses the foundational question of whether morphemes or lexemes should be regarded as the minimal signs in morphological theory. This leads to a related question about the nature of morphological rules: what, precisely, are their formal properties, and how do they serve to define a language’s morphology? The section ends with a discussion of productivity in its various senses, a notion fundamental to the distinctive grammatical profile of morphology.
 
Jump to:
Part 2: Issues in morphological theory
Part 3: Morphological principles
Part 4: Morphological frameworks
Part 5: The role of morphology in theories of phonology and syntax
Part 6: Domains for the evaluation of morphological theories
Appendix: Sources and resources for morphological research