Summary:

This new edition of Understanding Morphology has been fully revised in line with the latest research. It now includes 'big picture' questions to highlight central themes in morphology as well as research exercises for each chapter.

Understanding Morphology presents an introduction to the study of word structure that starts at the very beginning. Assuming no knowledge of the field of morphology on the part of the reader, the book presents a broad range of morphological phenomena from a wide variety of languages. Starting with the core areas of inflection and derivation, the book presents the interfaces between morphology and syntax and between morphology and phonology. The synchronic study of word structure is covered as are the phenomena of diachronic change such as analogy and grammaticalization.

Theories are presented clearly in accessible language with the main purpose of shedding light on the data, rather than as a goal in themselves. The authors consistently draw on the best research available, thus utilizing and discussing both functionalist and generative theoretical approaches.

Each chapter includes a summary, suggestions for further reading, and exercises.  As such this is the ideal book for both beginning students of linguistics, or anyone in a related discipline looking for a first introduction to morphology.

• Fully updated in line with the latest research
• Uses examples from a variety of languages
• Each chapter begins with a 'big picture' question designed to introduce students to essential themes
• New open-ended research exercises allow students to put what they have read into practice
• Assumes no prior knowledge of morphology
• New further reading sections, glossary and references

Table of Contents:
1 Introduction
1.1 What is morphology?
1.2 Morphology in different languages
1.3 The goals of morphological research
1.4 A brief user's guide to this book
Summary of chapter 1
Further reading
Exercises
Research skills
2 Lexical units
2.1 Lexems and word forms
2.2 Morphemes as the basic lexical units
2.3 Some difficulties in morpheme analysis
2.4 Words as the basic lexical units
2.5 Reconciling words and morphemes
Summary of chapter 2
Further reading
Appendix: morpheme-by-morpheme glosses
Exercises
Research skills
3 Rules
3.1 Productivity
3.2 Formal operations
3.3 The form of morphological rules
Summary of chapter 3
Further reading
Exercises
Research skills
4 Inflection and derivation
4.1 Inflectional categories
4.2 Derivational meanings
4.3 Properties of inflection and derivation
4.4 Conceptualizations in morphological theory
4.5 Associating inflectional properties with words
Summary of chapter 4
Further reading
Exercises
Research skills
5 Productivity
5.1 Possible, actual and occasional words
5.2 Measuring productivity
5.3 Morphological change
5.4 The relationship between morphological change and synchronic productivity
5.5 Restrictions on word-formation rules
5.6 Speakers' knowledge of productivity
Summary of chapter 5
Further reading
Exercises
Research skills
6 The hierarchical structure of words
6.1 Compounding
6.2 Hierarchical structure and head-dependent relations in compounds
6.3 Hierarchical structure and head-dependent relations in derived lexemes
6.4 Parallelism in syntax and morphology
Summary of chapter 6
Further reading
Exercises
7 Inflectional paradigms
7.1 Types of inflection classes
7.2 Describing global inflection classes
7.3 Inheritance hierarchies
7.4 The role of stmes in inflection
7.5 Syncretism
7.6 Missing cells: defectiveness, deponency and periphrasis
7.7 Syntagmatic and paragigmatic relations in morphology
Summary of Chapter 7
Further reading
Exercises
Research skills
8 Words and phrases
8.1 Diving text into words
8.2 Free forms versus bound forms
8.3 Clitics versus affixes
8.4 Compounds versus phrases
8.5 Lexical integrity
Summary of chapter 8
Further reading
Exercises
Research skills
9 Morphophonology
9.1 Two types of sound alternations
9.3 Process descriptions and sound alternations
9.3 Three types of morphophonological alternations
9.4 The diachrony of morphophonological alternations
9.5 Integrated accounts of phonology and morphology
Summary of chapter 9
Further reading
Exercises
Research skills
10 Morphology and valence
10.1 Valence-changing operations
10.2 Valence in compounding
10.3 Transpositional derivation
10.4 Transpositional inflection
Summary of chapter 10
Further reading
Exercises
Research skills
11 Frequency effects in morphology
11.1 Asymmetries in inflectional categories
11.2 The direction of analogical levelling
11.3 Frequency and irregularity
Summary of chapter 11
Further reading
Exercises
Research skills

About the Author(s):
Martin Haspelmath is a Senior Researcher in the Linguistics Department of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and an Honorary Professor at the University of Leipzig.
Andrea D. Sims is Assistant Professor of Slavic Linguistics at The Ohio State University.

Readership:
Undergraduate and Postgraduate students of Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, TESOL, Modern Languages and PGCEs in Modern Languages.