Inflection, derivation and compounding: Issues of delimitation
Jose-Luis Mendivil-Giro
May 2020 

First, I propose a non-gradual criterion of distinction between derivation and inflection based on a model of the position of morphology in the architecture of the language faculty. According to this model, derivational morphology reflects aspects of the syntactic structure of words (and implies the creation of different words), while inflectional morphology reflects aspects of the syntactic structure of sentences (and implies the creation of different forms of the same word). Next, I propose definitions of the three traditional morphological processes (inflection, derivation and compounding), then show that the problems of delimitation between them do not reveal inconsistencies in the definition of the processes, but rather, problems in the application of the definitions to specific cases, these being grouped as follows: (a) processes that seem inflectional, but are derivational, (b) processes that seem derivational, but are inflectional, and (c) problems of delimitation between derivation and compounding, which have to do with the problems of delimitation between roots and affixes.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/005702 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	The Routledge Handbook of Spanish Morphology edited by Antonio Fábregas, Víctor Acedo-Matellán, Grant Armstrong, María Cristina Cuervo and Isabel Pujol
keywords:	inflection; derivation; compounding; lexeme; word form, morphology
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