7 - Theoretical issues: modeling word-formation

Summary

Outline

In this chapter theories are introduced that try to find principled answers to two central problems of morphology. We will first examine the theory of Lexical Phonology as a theory that tries to model the interaction of phonology and morphology. In the second part of the chapter we discuss how different morphological theories conceptualize the form and nature of word-formation rules.

Introduction: why theory?

This chapter is devoted to theory and the obvious question is ‘why?’. Haven't we so far rather successfully dealt with numerous phenomena without making use of morphological theory? The answer is clearly ‘no.’ Whenever we had to solve an empirical problem, i.e. to explain an observation with regard to complex words, we had to make recourse to theoretical notions such as ‘word,’ ‘affix,’ ‘rule,’ ‘alternation,’ ‘prosody,’ ‘head,’ etc. In other words, during our journey through the realm of complex words, we tacitly developed a theory of word-formation without ever addressing explicitly the question of how our theoretical bits and pieces may fit together to form an overall theory of word-formation.

But what is a theory? Webster's Third defines the term ‘theory’ as “a coherent set of hypothetical, conceptual and pragmatic principles forming the general frame of reference for a particular field of inquiry (as for deducing principles, formulating hypotheses for testing, undertaking actions)” (Webster's Third, s. v. theory). In a more restricted sense a certain theory is a “hypothetical entity or structure explaining or relating an observed set of facts” (Webster's Third, s. v. theory).