There is more to the morphology of -š/ -iš

Abstract

There are two comparative suffixes in Ukrainian: the productive -iš, and the non-productive -š. Following Caha et al. (2019) I show that just like in Czech, the distribution of these two suffixes in Ukrainian is regulated not by phonology, but by morphosyntax. The theory of Nanosyntax (Starke 2009) is used in order to account for the data. The comparative meaning is represented in syntax not by one but by two functional heads. To be more precise, I propose that in Ukrainian -iš is decomposed into two morphemes -i and -š, where -i spells out the lower head and -š spells out the higher one. The issue of suppletive adjectives is discussed as well. I argue that suppletion can be accounted for using the nanosyntactic concept of pointers. As a result, this approach helps to explain the mechanism behind allomorphy of the comparative suffix in regular and suppletive adjectives in Ukrainian.