Erin Good

535 Assignment 6

Sauerland on Germanic inflection

Due: Thursday, Feb. 5th

1.              In a lexicalist morphological theory, at what point in the derivation does the level of Paradigm Structure occur? (One sentence, or a diagram/flow chart)

 It occurs between the affixed underspecified forms and the affixed fully specified forms that are then used by the syntax.

2.              In a lexicalist theory what is the purpose of the level of Paradigm Structure? That is, what problem is the level of Paradigm Structure posited to resolve? (One-two sentences)

The level of Paradigm Structure solves the problem of lexical underspecifcation. There is evidence that the syntax is working with more features then the morphemes contain, so these features are added at the level of paradigm structure.

3.              What empirical observation about the form of the adjectival suffixes in Germanic leads Sauerland to propose that the strong/weak category distinction is spurious? (One-two sentences)

In (almost) all cases the weak forms are also present in the strong forms. Consequently, their distribution can be explained by impoverishment rules, without recourse to a strong/weak feature in syntax.