Volume 14, Issue 4 (2023)
LRR 2023, 14(4): 1-30 |
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Ghotbi Karimi T, Arkan F, Azita Abbasi A A. Analyzing Asymmetric Derivational Morphology based on Paradigmatic Approach. LRR 2023; 14 (4) :1-30
URL: http://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article-14-51201-en.html
URL: http://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article-14-51201-en.html
1- Department of English, Qom Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qom, Iran.
2- Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Department of English Translation, Faculty of Humanities, Hazrat-e Masoumeh University, Qom, Iran ,farkan@hmu.ac.ir
3- Assistant professor, Department of linguistics, Faculty of literature, Alzahra university, Tehran, Iran
2- Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Department of English Translation, Faculty of Humanities, Hazrat-e Masoumeh University, Qom, Iran ,
3- Assistant professor, Department of linguistics, Faculty of literature, Alzahra university, Tehran, Iran
Abstract: (3058 Views)
Among derivational outputs, we come across derivates with no symmetry between their form and meaning, and their analysis is problematic according to morpheme-based approaches. In this research, such asymmetries in Persian verbal derivatives within the framework of theories such as Paradigm Function Morphology by Stump (2001) and Stewart and Stump (2007), are studied. This study seeks to answer the question of how the theory of Paradigm Function Morphology, by using the theoretical device of paradigm, analyzes and explains Persian asymmetric verbal derivatives of 66 verbs collected from Sokhan comprehensive dictionary. Analysis of Persian asymmetric data in terms of paradigmatic approach showed applying the paradigm function (as a realizational rule) to the lexical root/stem of a verb and morphosemantics properties pair in one cell of verb paradigm can determine the form of a derivative. Also, the assumption of the separation of morphological dimension and semantic dimension in the paradigmatic organization of a lexeme makes the phenomena of suppletion, deponency, defectiveness and syncretismpossible and justified. So, the asymmetry between form and meaning will no longer be a problem. All verbal derivatives can be analyzed and explained in the same way, whether with or without symmetry between their form and meaning. As a result, a more uniform, general and economical analysis is provided, and there is no need to propose secondary solutions such as zero morpehme, zero derivation and allomorphy which all arise from the assumption of a one-to-one corresondence between the form and meaning of the components of derivatives in morpheme-based approaches.
1. Introduction
The need to study derivational paradigm that display an organized set of cells derived from a lexeme containing morphosemantic properties (such as action noun, agent, etc.), due to gaps and the asymmetry that occurs in the relationship between the form and the meaning of the morphemes in the derivation, is one of the reasons that led to the expansion of the lexeme-based and paradigmatic approaches in the domain of words. Therefore, in some morphological theories, including the theory of paradigm function morphology, morphological analysis is not based on a one-to-one relationship between the form of words and their morphosyntactic or morphosemantics properties. In Stump’s paradigm function morphology theory (2001) and Stewart and Stump (2007), this asymmetry between form and meaning, which is associated with the occurrence of the morphological phenomena of suppletion, deponency, defectiveness and syncretism in inflection and word formation, is analyzed and explained with the help of the paradigmatic approach and relying on the concept of the lexeme. In this regard, the explanation of Persian asymmetrical verbal derivatives in the framework of the paradigmatic approach is one of the necessities of this research. So, the analysis of Persian derivation based on the paradigmatic approach is conducted in order to find out how some challenges of explaining a number of Persian verbal derivatives with no one-to-one formal and semantic correspondence can be met. Specifically, this research seeks to answer the following question:
1- How does paradigmatic approach analyze and explain the asymmetry of form and meaning of Persian verbal derivatives regarding the phenomena of suppletion, deponency, defectiveness and syncretism?
2. Literature Review
Irregular morphological phenomena have always attracted the attention of linguists and an answer has been tried to express these irregularities. Within the framework of paradigmatic approach, by considering the word as the unit of analysis, one-to-many or many-to-one correspondences can be better explained. In the present research, these morphological irregularities in Persian are explained by means of paradigmatic functions. This research is one of the new researches that deals with these morphological irregularities in Persian within the framework of Stump's (2001) theory of paradigm function morphology. In this section, we will introduce a number of researches related to the topic of this research, which have been carried out based on lexeme-based and paradigmatic approaches. Ghatreh (2013) examines inflectional and derivational paradigm ,and by presenting and analyzing examples of derivatives in the framework of paradigmatic approach, states that paradigm has an important role in the uniform analysis of inflection and derivation. Sarahi (2015) gives many examples of asymmetric morphological phenomena that can be explained by both morpheme-based and lexeme-based approaches. According to the generative approach of Halle (1973) and Aronoff (1976), she examines the asymmetric cases in Persian and concludes although the lexeme-based approach seems to be better, compared to the morpheme-based approach, it does not fully match the Persian vocabulary system. Shaghaghi and Mirzaei (2014) studies inflectional paradigms, and by presenting Corbett's (2007) classifications of canonical types, they have introduced deponency and syncretism as violations of canonical inflection in Persian. Arkan (2017) ,in the framework of the lexeme-based approach, examines the stems related to the verb and calls them "morphological stems" that have a separationist concept and the existence of different morphological stems belonging to the same verb is a valid reason for showing the lack of one-to-one correspondence between form and meaning.
According to Booij's definition (2005: 129 and 143), in syncretism, the different cells of verb paradigm are filled with the same phonological form and the suppletive form occurs when two or more grammatical forms have the same word form. Like Stump (2001), he considers the supletive forms require the idea of paradigm in the morphology of language and believes that the suppletive form highlights the importance of paradigm, because it shows that the reason why the word forms of paradigm belong to each other is not always because they are phonologically similar, but it is because they form the paradigm cells of the same lexeme. Bonami and Stump (2016:490) state that the lack of correspondence between form and meaning leads to phenomena such as deponency and suppletion, which can be a motivation for the expansion of the theory in which the content paradigm of a lexexme is different from its formal paradigm. Hippisley and Stump (2016: 2-3) in the preliminary discussion about the correspondence of form and content, mention the phenomena of syncretism, deponency, defectiveness and null morphology violate the existence of a one-to-one relationship between form and content. The above researches mostly have explained inflectional morphology in terms of paradigms, but previously Stump (1991) has concluded that there is no objection to the notion of a derivational paradigm, or to the use of paradigm functions in resolving morphosemantic mismatches in the domain of derivational morphology. Also the notion of derivational paradigm has been proposed by Štekauer (2014) in attaching affixes to the root of a lexeme.
3. Methodology
The research method is basically qualitative and by using descriptive-analytical method, the verbal derivatives (derived from 66 frequently used Persian intransitive and transitive verbs of the modern Persian language selected from Sokhan comprehensive dictionary (eight volumes), have been described, analzed and explained. Specially purposefully, verbs with suppletive and irregular stems such as DIDAN “to see”, SUXTAN “to burn”, PEYVASTAN “to join" have been selected to explain more asymmetric derivative forms in the data. Importantly, the theoretical framework of Paradigm Function Morphology(Stump,2001), is used to find out how the Persian irregular morphological phenomena is described and explained.
4. Results
In this research, 66 verbal paradigm were examined, of which 20 were intransitive verbs and 46 were transitive verbs. Out of a total of 722 derived words (from 66 verbs), 510 cases were the derived forms of transitive verbs and 212 cases were the derived forms of intransitive verbs. In sum, 490 asymmetric morphological phenomena were identified. 145 morphological phenomena were related to intransitive verbs, which included 63 cases of suppletion, 59 cases of syncretism, 13 cases of deponency, and 10 cases of defectiveness. From the total of 345 cases of morphological phenomena in the derivatives of transitive verbs, 232 cases were supletive, 90 cases were syncretic, 14 cases were related to defectiveness, and 9 cases were related to deponency. In both types of verbs, suppletion and syncretism were observed in the largest number of data. The phenomena of deponency and defectiveness showed almost similar statistics in transitive and transitive verbs.
5. Discussion
The asymmetry between form (formal paradigm) and content (content paradigm) of Persian asymmetric verbal derivatives, regarding the above phenomena, has been examined from the theoretical standpoints of Stump (2001) and Stewart and Stump (2007). Here, the lexeme of verb(infinitive form) is the base of the content paradigm and the verbal root (present / past stem) is the base of the formal paradigm.The analysis of verbal Persian derivatives based on these theoretical standpoints, emphasizing paradigmatic functions, showed that all formal regular and irregular verbal derived words could be accomodated in the paradigmatic organization of a verb lexeme if we explain them by applying the paradigm function to the pair of the Persian verbal stem and morphosemantic features in each paradigm cell, whether they are symmetrical or asymmetrical. Following this, the final deivational output can be realized and it represents a specific cell in a verb paradigm. So, what is important is not the internal components of a cell, but the final derived product as a whole entity is important, during formation of which different regular and above irregular morphological phenomena may occur.
6. Conclusion
In the analysis of Persian verbal derivatives based on paradigmatic approach, since paradigm function is responsible for the formation of these derivatives, the form of these derivatives is determined independently of their meaning. The final deivational output represents a specific cell in a verb paradigm and its meaning is determined by means of a separate content paradigm. So, what is important is not the internal components of a cell, but the final derived product as a whole entity is important which represents a cell. Therefore, the formal irregularities in these derivatives relate to the morphological dimension, being different from the semantic dimension. As a result of assuming the above independent paradigms, one-to-one correspondence between form and meaning of these derivatives is not expected for all cases. So, there is no need to propose secondary solutions such as zero morpehme, zero derivation, allomorphy which all arise from the assumption of a one-to-one corresondence between the form and meaning of the components of derivatives in morpheme-based approaches. Thus, the proposed hypothesis about the separation between formal paradigm and content paradigm can account for the asymmetry of their form- meaning relation .
In addition, using theoretical device of paradigm, all derivatives of a verb are explicitly and simultaneously shown to be related and belonging to a verb lexeme as their common focal point in Persian verb paradigm. Assuming paradaigm organization of Persian verb lexeme results in representing explicitly all filled and empty cells of a verb paradigm (due to defetiveness and deponency), syncretic and suppletive cases along with regular ones in the derivational paradigm of the Persian verb. As a result, paradigmatic approach in the analysis of verbal derivatives is more explicit, transparent and general compared to other morphological approaches
1. Introduction
The need to study derivational paradigm that display an organized set of cells derived from a lexeme containing morphosemantic properties (such as action noun, agent, etc.), due to gaps and the asymmetry that occurs in the relationship between the form and the meaning of the morphemes in the derivation, is one of the reasons that led to the expansion of the lexeme-based and paradigmatic approaches in the domain of words. Therefore, in some morphological theories, including the theory of paradigm function morphology, morphological analysis is not based on a one-to-one relationship between the form of words and their morphosyntactic or morphosemantics properties. In Stump’s paradigm function morphology theory (2001) and Stewart and Stump (2007), this asymmetry between form and meaning, which is associated with the occurrence of the morphological phenomena of suppletion, deponency, defectiveness and syncretism in inflection and word formation, is analyzed and explained with the help of the paradigmatic approach and relying on the concept of the lexeme. In this regard, the explanation of Persian asymmetrical verbal derivatives in the framework of the paradigmatic approach is one of the necessities of this research. So, the analysis of Persian derivation based on the paradigmatic approach is conducted in order to find out how some challenges of explaining a number of Persian verbal derivatives with no one-to-one formal and semantic correspondence can be met. Specifically, this research seeks to answer the following question:
1- How does paradigmatic approach analyze and explain the asymmetry of form and meaning of Persian verbal derivatives regarding the phenomena of suppletion, deponency, defectiveness and syncretism?
2. Literature Review
Irregular morphological phenomena have always attracted the attention of linguists and an answer has been tried to express these irregularities. Within the framework of paradigmatic approach, by considering the word as the unit of analysis, one-to-many or many-to-one correspondences can be better explained. In the present research, these morphological irregularities in Persian are explained by means of paradigmatic functions. This research is one of the new researches that deals with these morphological irregularities in Persian within the framework of Stump's (2001) theory of paradigm function morphology. In this section, we will introduce a number of researches related to the topic of this research, which have been carried out based on lexeme-based and paradigmatic approaches. Ghatreh (2013) examines inflectional and derivational paradigm ,and by presenting and analyzing examples of derivatives in the framework of paradigmatic approach, states that paradigm has an important role in the uniform analysis of inflection and derivation. Sarahi (2015) gives many examples of asymmetric morphological phenomena that can be explained by both morpheme-based and lexeme-based approaches. According to the generative approach of Halle (1973) and Aronoff (1976), she examines the asymmetric cases in Persian and concludes although the lexeme-based approach seems to be better, compared to the morpheme-based approach, it does not fully match the Persian vocabulary system. Shaghaghi and Mirzaei (2014) studies inflectional paradigms, and by presenting Corbett's (2007) classifications of canonical types, they have introduced deponency and syncretism as violations of canonical inflection in Persian. Arkan (2017) ,in the framework of the lexeme-based approach, examines the stems related to the verb and calls them "morphological stems" that have a separationist concept and the existence of different morphological stems belonging to the same verb is a valid reason for showing the lack of one-to-one correspondence between form and meaning.
According to Booij's definition (2005: 129 and 143), in syncretism, the different cells of verb paradigm are filled with the same phonological form and the suppletive form occurs when two or more grammatical forms have the same word form. Like Stump (2001), he considers the supletive forms require the idea of paradigm in the morphology of language and believes that the suppletive form highlights the importance of paradigm, because it shows that the reason why the word forms of paradigm belong to each other is not always because they are phonologically similar, but it is because they form the paradigm cells of the same lexeme. Bonami and Stump (2016:490) state that the lack of correspondence between form and meaning leads to phenomena such as deponency and suppletion, which can be a motivation for the expansion of the theory in which the content paradigm of a lexexme is different from its formal paradigm. Hippisley and Stump (2016: 2-3) in the preliminary discussion about the correspondence of form and content, mention the phenomena of syncretism, deponency, defectiveness and null morphology violate the existence of a one-to-one relationship between form and content. The above researches mostly have explained inflectional morphology in terms of paradigms, but previously Stump (1991) has concluded that there is no objection to the notion of a derivational paradigm, or to the use of paradigm functions in resolving morphosemantic mismatches in the domain of derivational morphology. Also the notion of derivational paradigm has been proposed by Štekauer (2014) in attaching affixes to the root of a lexeme.
3. Methodology
The research method is basically qualitative and by using descriptive-analytical method, the verbal derivatives (derived from 66 frequently used Persian intransitive and transitive verbs of the modern Persian language selected from Sokhan comprehensive dictionary (eight volumes), have been described, analzed and explained. Specially purposefully, verbs with suppletive and irregular stems such as DIDAN “to see”, SUXTAN “to burn”, PEYVASTAN “to join" have been selected to explain more asymmetric derivative forms in the data. Importantly, the theoretical framework of Paradigm Function Morphology(Stump,2001), is used to find out how the Persian irregular morphological phenomena is described and explained.
4. Results
In this research, 66 verbal paradigm were examined, of which 20 were intransitive verbs and 46 were transitive verbs. Out of a total of 722 derived words (from 66 verbs), 510 cases were the derived forms of transitive verbs and 212 cases were the derived forms of intransitive verbs. In sum, 490 asymmetric morphological phenomena were identified. 145 morphological phenomena were related to intransitive verbs, which included 63 cases of suppletion, 59 cases of syncretism, 13 cases of deponency, and 10 cases of defectiveness. From the total of 345 cases of morphological phenomena in the derivatives of transitive verbs, 232 cases were supletive, 90 cases were syncretic, 14 cases were related to defectiveness, and 9 cases were related to deponency. In both types of verbs, suppletion and syncretism were observed in the largest number of data. The phenomena of deponency and defectiveness showed almost similar statistics in transitive and transitive verbs.
5. Discussion
The asymmetry between form (formal paradigm) and content (content paradigm) of Persian asymmetric verbal derivatives, regarding the above phenomena, has been examined from the theoretical standpoints of Stump (2001) and Stewart and Stump (2007). Here, the lexeme of verb(infinitive form) is the base of the content paradigm and the verbal root (present / past stem) is the base of the formal paradigm.The analysis of verbal Persian derivatives based on these theoretical standpoints, emphasizing paradigmatic functions, showed that all formal regular and irregular verbal derived words could be accomodated in the paradigmatic organization of a verb lexeme if we explain them by applying the paradigm function to the pair of the Persian verbal stem and morphosemantic features in each paradigm cell, whether they are symmetrical or asymmetrical. Following this, the final deivational output can be realized and it represents a specific cell in a verb paradigm. So, what is important is not the internal components of a cell, but the final derived product as a whole entity is important, during formation of which different regular and above irregular morphological phenomena may occur.
6. Conclusion
In the analysis of Persian verbal derivatives based on paradigmatic approach, since paradigm function is responsible for the formation of these derivatives, the form of these derivatives is determined independently of their meaning. The final deivational output represents a specific cell in a verb paradigm and its meaning is determined by means of a separate content paradigm. So, what is important is not the internal components of a cell, but the final derived product as a whole entity is important which represents a cell. Therefore, the formal irregularities in these derivatives relate to the morphological dimension, being different from the semantic dimension. As a result of assuming the above independent paradigms, one-to-one correspondence between form and meaning of these derivatives is not expected for all cases. So, there is no need to propose secondary solutions such as zero morpehme, zero derivation, allomorphy which all arise from the assumption of a one-to-one corresondence between the form and meaning of the components of derivatives in morpheme-based approaches. Thus, the proposed hypothesis about the separation between formal paradigm and content paradigm can account for the asymmetry of their form- meaning relation .
In addition, using theoretical device of paradigm, all derivatives of a verb are explicitly and simultaneously shown to be related and belonging to a verb lexeme as their common focal point in Persian verb paradigm. Assuming paradaigm organization of Persian verb lexeme results in representing explicitly all filled and empty cells of a verb paradigm (due to defetiveness and deponency), syncretic and suppletive cases along with regular ones in the derivational paradigm of the Persian verb. As a result, paradigmatic approach in the analysis of verbal derivatives is more explicit, transparent and general compared to other morphological approaches
Keywords: lexeme, paradigm function, paradigm linkage, suppletion, deponency, defectiveness, syncretism
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