Download On the relationship between derivation and inflection in word

On the relation between derivation and inflection in word-formation:
evidence from the Griko verb system
Nikos Koutsoukos1 & Angela Ralli2
University of Patras1,2
1
Universiteit Leiden , Seeger Research Fellow, Princeton University 2
In grammatical models which predict that derivation and inflection potentially
interact, the crucial question to be addressed concerns the demarcation of this
interaction in terms of morphological marking. As observed in Stump (2005), in
theory the question is a straightforward one. However, in practice, the distinction
between the two processes is rather blurred, since the inflectional properties of
derived words can be part of the derivational process. This idea has been clearly
articulated by Aronoff (1994), who argues on the basis of Hebrew verbal morphology
that a derivational process may assign membership in a given inflection class to its
output stems.
In this paper, we focus on some interesting data drawn from Griko verb inflection.
Griko is a dialect of Greek origin, spoken by approximately 20,000 speakers in 9
neighbouring villages which are located at the centre of the Salentine peninsula
(Southern Italy). Verb inflection in this dialect is mainly elaborated on two major
inflectional paradigms, the distinction between which is based on the presence or
absence of a systematic pattern of allomorphy. Verb stems belonging to the first
paradigm (P-A) display a pattern Χ(a/e) ~ Χ(i) (where X represents part of the stem
and the vowel in parenthesis is the stem-final vowel) whereas the absence of this
pattern characterizes verb formations belonging to the second paradigm (P-B) (cf.
Ralli, 1988, 2005 for the inflection in Standard Modern Greek). Table (1) provides
illustrative examples:
Table (1): Griko Inflectional paradigms
Paradigm A
agap(á)o ‘I love’
BASE-1SG
agápi-sa
BASE-AORIST.1SG
Paradigm B
gráf-o ‘I write’
BASE-1SG
é-grap-sa
AUG-BASE-AORIST.1SG
Interestingly, as noticed by Karanastasis (1997) and Katsoyiannou (1995), many
verbal bases tend to shift from P-A to P-B, which has been characterized as the
‘strong’ inflection class compared to the ‘weak’ P-A. This shift is realized with the
presence of a verbalizer, which, in most cases, takes the form -idz-, a very
productively used deverbal suffix in both Standard Modern Greek and its dialects:
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Table (2): Pairs of verbal formations in Griko
Set 1
akkoumb-ó ‘to lean’
BASE-1SG
vast-ó ‘to hold’
BASE-1SG
Paradigm
A
A
Set 2
akkoumb-ίdz-o ‘to lean’
BASE-VERBALISER-1SG
vast-ίdz-o ‘to hold’
BASE-VERBALISER-1SG
Paradigm
B
B
On the basis of these data, we would like to claim, first, that the degree of
productivity of the two inflectional paradigms triggers the operation of crossparadigmatic levelling in favour of Paradigm B, which can be considered as the
default paradigm of the Griko verbal system. Crucially, this levelling process raises an
important question with respect to the type of derivational suffix that is used for the
restructuring of verb bases. We would like to propose that the choice of this suffix,
i.e. that of -idz-, is determined by the base itself, namely by its Xi- allomorph found in
the past tense (aorist), which has always played a prominent role in Greek derivation
(see also Ralli, 2012).
Second, we show that contrary to the general tendency seen in cross-paradigmatic
levelling, this change does not result in simplification of the morphological structure
involved. As shown by Table (2), the two data sets differ with respect to their
structural complexity, while members of the same pair have the same semantic
compositionality. In fact, the derived verbs have become more complex, in that they
contain a morphologically complex base, as opposed to the original verbs, the base of
which is morphologically simple.
Finally, assuming that a set of stems bearing a particular mark of derivation can be
exactly the set of stems available to a particular inflectional paradigm, we argue that
derivational marking changes the inflectional properties of the verbal bases by
shifting the inflectional class from the ‘weak’ paradigm A to the ‘strong’ (or default)
paradigm B. In fact, the findings of the Griko data have several implications for the
discussion on the relation between inflection and derivation, since they show that the
two processes are interrelated in word-formation.
Selected references
Aronoff, M. (1994). Morphology by itself. Stems and inflectional classes (Linguistic Ιnquiry
monographs). MIT Press.
Karanastasis, A. (1997). Grammar of the Greek dialects of Southern Italy (in Greek). Athens:
Academy of Athens.
Katsoyiannou, M. (1995). The verb in the Greek dialect of Southern Italy (in Greek). Studies
in Greek Linguistics. Thessaloniki: University of Thessaloniki, 541-553.
Stump, G. (2005). Delineating the boundary between inflection-class marking and
derivational marking: The case of Sanskrit -aya. In W. U. Dressler, D. Kastovsky & F.
Rainer (Eds.) Morphology and its Demarcations. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 293-309.
Ralli, Α. (1988). Eléments de la morphologie du grec moderne: la structure du verbe. Ph.D.
Diss. Montreal: Université de Montréal.
Ralli, A. (2005). Morfologia [Morphology]. Athens: Patakis.
Ralli, A. (2012). Morphology in language contact: verbal loanblend formation in Asia Minor
Greek (Aivaliot). In Th. Stolz et al. (Eds.) Morphologies in Contact. Berlin: Akademie
Verlag, 185-211.
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