Deriving Polarity Effects in Inflectional Morphology
نویسندگان
چکیده
In this paper, I argue for a new, theory-neutral approach to polarity effects resting upon the idea that the choice of marker for a given feature specification is determined by the choice of marker for a minimally different specification. In paradigms instantiating polarity effects, the matching of morpho-syntactic and phonological features proceeds by natural class based-rules, but is partly overriden by two principles, Discreteness of Environment and Minimality, the latter of which is an independently motivated assumption underlying syntactic derivations, and arguably a basic property of language in general.
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