Towards a morphological theory : the case of Arabic broken and sound plurals

Abstract EN

Keywords:sound plural, broken plural, atomicity, lexical- syntax interface, morphology,Arabic, Hebrew diminutive.

Abstract: the paper discusses the Arabic broken plural and sound plural (SP henceforth) as two instances of two distinct morphological processes involving different characteristics and mechanisms.

I propose an analysis based on how morphology operates in the lexicon and the syntax and provide data from Arabic and Hebrew.

I argue that the BP is derived lexically as one atomic complex word while the SP involves a two-unit merger deriving a non-atomic word in the syntax.

Evidence follows from the lexical access, morphological productivity, semantic distinctions of number and the lexical representation of BP and SP.

Atomicity plays a crucial role in the distinction of morphology in the lexicon and the syntax not just in Arabic morphology but also cross-linguistically as illustrated by the Hebrew diminutives which add further evidence to the effect of atomicity in the morphological analysis of words.