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On the hierarchy of naturalness principles in inflectional morphology1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Max W. Wheeler
Max W. Wheeler
Affiliation:
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK.
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Extract

1. This article proposes a criticism and elaboration of the theory of Natural Morphology as it relates to inflection and to inflectional change. The theoretical framework I start from is that set out at length in Mayerthaler (1981/1988), Wurzel (1984/1989), Dressler (1987) and Kilani-Schoch (1988). The concept of naturalness involved here combines Prague School notions of markedness (see Andersen, 1989) with more recent typological approaches and a semiotic framework which derives from the work of C. S. Peirce. The goal of naturalness theories in historical linguistics is to identify some constraints on language change (for example, on sound change, analogy and grammaticalization) which are, broadly speaking, functionally motivated, that is, motivated by the nature of human psychology or of human communication. Naturalness theories offer an approach to explanation of Weinreich, Labov & Herzog's (1968; 102, 186) actuation problem. Among other things, Natural Morphology proposes explanatory principles and constraints for analogy.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , March 1993 , pp. 95 - 111
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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