Deponency and Morphological Mismatches

by Matthew Baerman, Greville G. Corbett, Dunstan Brown, Andrew Hippisley

Overview

Deponency is a mismatch between form and function in language that was first described for Latin, where there is a group of verbs (the deponents) which are morphologically passive but syntactically active. This is evidence of a larger problem involving the interface between syntax and morphology: inflectional morphology is supposed to specify syntactic function, but sometimes it sends out the wrong signal. Although the problem is as old as the Western linguistic tradition, no generally accepted account of it has yet been given, and it is safe to say that all current theories of language have been constructed as if deponency did not exist.

In recent years, however, linguists have begun to confront its theoretical implications, albeit largely in isolation from each other. There is as yet no definitive statement of the problem, nor any generally accepted definition of its nature and scope.

This volume brings together the findings of leading scholars working in the area of morphological mismatches, and represents the first book-length typological and theoretical treatment of the topic. It will establish the important role that research on deponency has to play in contemporary linguistics, and set the standard for future work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780197264102
Publisher:	British Academy
Publication date:	01/06/2008
Series:	Proceedings of the British Academy , #145
Pages:	342
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.20(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Dr Dunstan Brown, Editor, British, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, University of Surrey
Dr Andrew Hippisley, Editor, British/American, Lecturer in Computing, University of Surrey

Table of Contents

Morphological typology of deponency, Matthew BaermanDeponency, syncretism and what lies in between, Greville CorbettExtending deponency: implications for morphological mismatches, Andrew SpencerA non-canonical pattern of deponency and its implications, Gregory StumpDeponency in the diachrony of Greek, Nikolas Lavidas and Dimitra PapangeliDeponency in Latin, Zheng Xu, Mark Aronoff and Frank AnshenDeclarative Deponency: a Network Morphology account of morphological mismatches, Andrew HippisleyThe limits of deponency: a Chukotko-centric perspective, Jonathan BobaljikSlouching towards deponency: a family of mismatches in the Bantu verb stem, Jeffrey GoodSpanish pseudoplurals: phonological cues in the acquisition of a syntax/morphology mismatch, Ricardo Bermúdez-OteroPseudo-argument affixes in Iwaidja and Ilgar: a case of deponent subject and object agreement, Nicholas EvansAfterward: How safe are our analyses?, Peter Matthews