Latin paradigms are almost proverbially known, and they have often been used as a test case for different theoretical approaches to morphological complexity. This book analyses them in a completely word-based perspective, using a recently developed information-theoretic methodology, making entropy-based techniques of analysis available to a wider readership. By doing so, it shows the relevance of traditional notions like principal parts, giving them a more principled, data-driven formulation. Furthermore, it suggests enhancements to the standard information-theoretic methodology, allowing to account for the role of external factors – like gender and derivational information – in improving predictability between inflected word forms. This book is useful to morphologists, that will see ideas and techniques taken from the current debate on morphological theory tested on complex phenomena of a language as renowned as Latin. It is also helpful for scholars working in both Latin and Romance linguistics: the former will find a freely available lexical resource and a novel description of Latin paradigms, that can be exploited by the latter to draw a comparison with recent analyses of the inflectional morphology of several Romance languages.
Author(s): Matteo Pellegrini
Series: Studies in Morphology, 6
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 193
City: Cham
Preface
Acknowledgements
Contents
Chapter 1: The Theoretical Framework
1.1 Some Definitions
1.2 Classifications of Theories of Inflectional Morphology
1.3 Implicative Relations, Words and Sub-word Units
1.3.1 Implicative Relations and Exponents
1.3.2 Implicative Relations and Stem Allomorphy
1.3.3 Putting It All Together: Implicative Relations Between Words
1.4 The Quantitative Dimension
1.5 Conclusion: A Quantitative Abstractive Approach to the Implicative Structure of Paradigms
References
Chapter 2: The Method
2.1 Basic Information-Theoretic Notions
2.2 Predicting Exponents
2.3 Predicting Alternation Patterns
2.4 Predicting from More Than One Wordform
2.5 Predicting Forms Knowing More Than Just Forms
2.6 Conclusion: An Entropy-based Approach to the PCFP
References
Chapter 3: The Data and the Tools
3.1 The Structure of LatInfLexi
3.2 The Selection of Lexemes
3.3 The Generation of Wordforms
3.3.1 Verb Paradigms
3.3.2 Noun Paradigms
3.4 The Treatment of Overabundance
3.4.1 Overabundance Due to the Presence of More Than One les
3.4.2 Overabundance Due to Compatibility of a les with More Than One sf
3.5 Phonetic Transcriptions
3.6 Using Qumin
3.7 Conclusion: Using LatInfLexi for an Entropy-based Analysis of Latin Verb and Noun Paradigms
References
Chapter 4: Predictability and Paradigm Organization in Latin Verb Inflection
4.1 Latin Verb Inflection: The Traditional Account and Previous Theoretical Research
4.2 The Cell Paradigm of Latin Verbs
4.3 Predictability in Latin Verb Inflection
4.3.1 Wordforms that Are Based on Different Stems
4.3.2 Wordforms that Are Based on the Same Stem
4.4 Zones of Interpredictability in Latin Verb Inflection
4.5 n-ary Implicative Entropy and Principal Parts
4.6 Conclusion
References
Chapter 5: Predictability in Latin Noun Inflection and the Role of Gender
5.1 Latin Noun Inflection: The Traditional Account
5.2 Predictability in Latin Noun Inflection
5.2.1 The Cell Paradigm of Latin Nouns
5.2.2 Results: Unary Implicative Entropy
5.2.3 n-ary Implicative Entropy and Principal Parts
5.3 Predictability and Gender
5.3.1 Some Examples
5.3.2 Gender and Nominal Inflection Classes in Latin
5.3.3 Results
5.3.4 Discussion
5.4 Conclusion
References
Chapter 6: The Impact of Derivational Relatedness on Inflectional Predictions
6.1 The Question
6.2 Verbs that Derive from the Same Ancestor: Derivational-Inflectional Families
6.2.1 Coding Derivational-Inflectional Families
6.2.2 The Inflectional Behaviour of Verbs in the Same Family
6.2.3 Results
6.3 Nouns that Are Formed by Means of the Same Derivational Suffix: Derivational-Inflectional Series
6.3.1 Derivational-Inflectional Series: Coding and Inflectional Behaviour
6.3.2 Results
6.4 A Different Approach: Framing Inflectional Predictability as a Classification Problem
6.5 Discussion
6.6 Conclusion
References
Chapter 7: Conclusions
References
