Theoretical Issues in Word Formation

This chapter surveys a number of frameworks and theoretical issues in the analysis of derivation and compounding that have occupied morphologists over the last six decades, and begins to assess what has been achieved over this period. Topics include the formal nature of word formation, the relevant units of analysis, the form of morphological rules and processes, the relationship of morphological theory to syntax and phonology, and the theoretical treatment of lexical semantics. The chapter also explores a variety of narrower issues such as bracketing paradoxes, headedness, the question of affix ordering, and the nature of derivational paradigms.