Language & Information Lab.

Morphology Course

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General Information

In the framework of the project "Word Formation as a Structuring Device of the English and Italian Lexicons: A Large-Scale Exploration" a historical introduction to morphological theorizing was organized, given by Pius ten Hacken. The first part took place on 17-18 November 2000. A second part, covering generative morphology in the 1970s and 1980s took place on 19-20 January 2001. This page gives access to the slide presentations of the first part and an annotated bibliography. If you are interested in attending the second part, please register by writing an email to pius.tenhacken@unibas.ch.

1. Morphology from Bloomfield (1933) to Chomsky (1970)

1 Introduction
2 Bloomfield
3 The Post-Bloomfieldians
4 The Chomskyan Revolution
5 Transformational Morphology
6 The Lexicalist Hypothesis

Annotated Bibliography

This is not meant to be a full bibliographical overview, but rather a selection of important articles and books mentioned in the course.

General Historical Overviews

  • Matthews, Peter H. (1993), Grammatical Theory in the United States from Bloomfield to Chomsky, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    • A critical overview of the development of linguistic theory from Bloomfield (1914) until Chomsky's Government and Binding Theory. Focus is on the history of certain general ideas about language.
  • Newmeyer, Frederick J. (1986), Linguistic Theory in America, second edition, New York: Academic Press.

    • An overview of the development of Chomskyan linguistics from its origins to Government and Binding and some competing frameworks (Lexical-Functional Grammar and Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar); particular attention is given to generative semantics. Focus is on the development of the theory and the discussion of crucial examples.
  • Ten Hacken, Pius (1997), 'Progress and Incommensurability in Linguistics', Beiträge zur Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft 7:287-310.

    • An overview of the research programmes adopted by Chomsky and some of his competitors, including the Post-Bloomfieldians.

    Bloomfield

  • Bloomfield, Leonard (1914), An Introduction to the Study of Language, Holt Rinehart & Winston, New York; reprint: Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1983.

    • Mainly of historical interest.
  • Bloomfield, Leonard (1933), Language, London: Allen & Unwin (British edition 1935).

    • Chapters 13-14 on morphology are still worth reading.
  • Hockett, Charles F. (ed.) (1970), A Leonard Bloomfield Anthology, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    • A selection of his other articles with an extensive bibliography.

    Post-Bloomfieldians

  • Bloch, Bernard & Trager, George L. (1942), Outline of Linguistic Analysis, Baltimore: Linguistic Society of America.

    • General overview of descriptive, synchronic analysis methods and terminology.
  • Harris, Zellig S. (1951), Methods in Structural Linguistics, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, (repr. as Structural Linguistics, 1960).

    • Overview of methodology, now mainly of historical interest.
  • Hockett, Charles F. (1958), A Course in Modern Linguistics, New York: MacMillan.

    • General overview, in many respects comparable to Bloomfield's Language.
  • Joos, Martin (ed.) (1958), The Development of Descriptive Linguistics in America 1925-1956, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    • Reader which makes available most of the important methodological articles of the Post-Bloomfieldians, including the ones listed below
  • Hockett, Charles F. (1942), 'A System of Descriptive Phonology', Language 18:3-21.
  • Harris, Zellig S. (1942), 'Morpheme Alternants in Linguistic Analysis', Language 18:169-180.
  • Hockett, Charles F. (1947), 'Problems of Morphemic Analysis', Language 23:321-343.
  • Wells, Rulon S. (1947), 'Immediate Constituents', Language 23:81-117.
  • Hockett, Charles F. (1954), 'Two Models of Grammatical Description', Word 10:210-231.

    • The source of the Item & Arrangement vs. Item & Process dichotomy.
  • Householder Jr., Fred W. (1952), 'Review of Harris, Zellig S. (1951), Methods in Structural Linguistics', International Journal of American Linguistics 28:260-268.

    • The source of the God's truth vs. hocus-pocus dichotomy.

    Transformational Morphology

  • Lees, Robert B. (1960), The Grammar of English Nominalizations, Bloomington: Indiana University Press & Den Haag: Mouton.

    • The first work on compounding in Chomskyan linguistics. Now mainly of historical interest.
  • Lees, Robert B. (1970), 'Problems in the grammatical analysis of English nominal compounds', in Bierwisch, Manfred & Heidolph, Karl Erich (eds.), Progress in Linguistics, Den Haag: Mouton, p. 174-186.

    • An example of the development of thought in transformational morphology after Lees (1960). Now mainly of historical interest.
  • Levi, Judith N. (1978), The syntax and semantics of complex nominals, New York: Academic Press.

    • Probably the last work advocating a transformational approach to morphology. Many assumptions of generative semantics are adopted (cf. Newmeyer (1986) in "Historical overviews"). Now mainly of historical interest.

    Lexicalist Hypothesis

  • Chomsky, Noam (1970), 'Remarks on Nominalization', in Jacobs, Roderick A. & Rosenbaum, Peter S. (eds.), Readings in English Transformational Grammar, Waltham (Mass.): Ginn, p. 184-221.

    • One of the very few if not the only article by Chomsky which is mainly devoted to morphology. Origin of the lexicalist hypothesis. Also introduces X-bar theory.
  • Scalise, Sergio (1984), Generative Morphology, Dordrecht: Foris.

    • The first few chapters give an overview of transformational morphology and the emergence of the lexicalist hypothesis.
     
     

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    14-Feb-2001   Pius ten Hacken