Morphosyntactic Alternations in English - Functional and Cognitive Perspectives - Pilar Guerrero Medina
14. Morphological relatedness and zero alternation in Old English
Morphosyntactic Alternations in English - Functional and Cognitive Perspectives - Pilar Guerrero Medina
Javier Martin Arista
University of La Rioja
Description
This chapter by Javier Martín Arista, is centrally concerned with morphological alternations as recurrent pairings of meaning and form. Martín Arista deals with zero alternation in Old English (OE) as comprising two phenomena involving an irregular association (or mismatch) between form and meaning: zero derivation and the empty morph. The author proposes a typology of affixless derivation in OE that distinguishes zero derivation and conversion, and shows that zero derivation and redundant derivation with empty morphs are related phenomena if word-formation is considered in its syntagmatic and paradigmatic dimensions.