SLE Workshop - Recursiveness in Word-Formation - Lisbon ...francescamasini.caissa.it/Presentations_files/lisbona_slides_def.pdf · Recursion in morphology Inflection vs. derivation

Livio Gaeta Università di Napoli "Federico II" [email protected]

Francesca Masini Università Roma Tre [email protected]

The importance of being recursive

SLE Workshop - Recursiveness in Word-Formation - Lisbon, 11-09-2009

What is recursion?

  Recursion (or recursiveness or ricorsivity) is a generative tool for forming new strings of objects by the cyclic reapplication of the same process to successive results

  Reapplication of an operation to its output  → production

  Individuation of a recurrent pattern  → perception

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SLE Workshop on Recursiveness in Word-Formation Lisbon, 11-09-2009

What is recursion?

  In formal linguistics this notion often refers to the embedding mechanism in syntax and it has been claimed to be an essential property characterizing the language faculty of human beings (cf. Hauser, Chomsky & Fitch 2002)

  What is really special to language?  Recursion via node identification, i.e. the presence of

a head (Jackendoff 2007)   Recursion: “a phrase of a certain category may

contain a phrase of the same category” (Culicover 2009: 475)

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What is recursion?

 Coordination  copying

  [the animals]NP   [the animals]NP and [the plants]NP

 replacing  another person, [moustached]AP and [blond]AP  another person, [moustached]AP and [with long hair]PP=AP

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What is recursion?

 Subordination  copying

  [the house]NP [of the owner]PP   [the house]NP [of the owner]PP [of the car]PP

 replacing  Mary saw [the animals]NP  Mary saw [that the animals were hungry]S=NP

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Is there recursion in morphology?

 Can this notion be extended to morphology and the lexicon?

 A more precise definition of recursion is needed if we want to answer this question

 How is normally defined recursion in morphological studies?

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Is there recursion in morphology?

 Three positions are possible  There is no recursion in morphology  There is recursion in morphology, or at least in

a part of it (derivation)  There is recursion in morphology, but of a

different type with respect to syntactic recursion

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Recursion in morphology Inflection vs. derivation

  Matthews (1991: 213-214)   "Non-recursivity is a characteristic trait of morphology: one

cannot form a future stem of a Latin verb, then an imperfect from that and apply the future once more to the result."

  "Some counterexamples are found in derivational morphology: Turkish double causatives and Portuguese double diminutives"

  "However, inflectional morphology is always strictly non-recursive. This follows directly from the assumption that the contribution of inflectional morphology is a fixed set of features or dimensions with a fixed set of values."

  Cf. also Booij (2000: 365) and Dressler (1989) for the difference between inflection and derivation with respect to recursion

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Recursion in morphology Affixation 1

  Many authors (cf. e.g. Aronoff & Fuhrhop 2002, Lieber 2004) define recursion more broadly as the reapplication of an affixation process to an already affixed word  En.confess confession confessional confessionalize (Lieber 2004: 168)

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Recursion in morphology Affixation 2

  Others, e.g. Katamba (1993: 53), distinguish between recursion as the "creation of new words with the same morphemes being used again and again" and the "multiple affixation of different affixes"   En. great-great-great-great grandson   En. re-re-re-make   En. national nationalize nationalization antinationalization preantinationalization

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Recursion in morphology Suffixation

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  If we adopt the definition of recursion as the reapplication of the same morpheme, then it is clear that suffixation is less prone to recursion, since it is often a category-changing process: the applicability conditions for the suffix Y disappear after suffix Y has been attached (cf. Scalise 1994: 245, Plag 2003: 161)  En.kill killer *killerer  BUT: chatterer (Baayen et al. 2009)


Recursion in morphology Evaluative suffixes 1

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  Evaluative suffixes can be subject to recursion because they are not category-changing (Scalise 1994: 246)   Italian bambino 'child' bambinetto 'little child' bambinettino 'dear little child'

 Afrikaans kind 'child' kindjie 'little child' kindjiejie 'dear little child'


Recursion in morphology Evaluative suffixes 2

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  However, we may add that this seems to be generally true for evaluative suffixes that attach to nominal or adjectival bases, not for verbal evaluative suffixes, at least in Italian (cf. also Grandi 2008)   It. cantare 'to sing' canticchiare 'to croom, to sing softly' *canticchicchiare *canticchierellare


Recursion in morphology Prefixation 1

  Prefixes are clearly more recursive than suffixes for the same reason   En. make remake reremake rereremake (Katamba 1993: 53)

  It. saturo 'saturated' ipersaturo 'hyper-saturated' iperipersaturo 'hyper-hyper-saturated' iperiperipersaturo 'hyper-hyper-hyper-saturated'

(Scalise 1994: 244)

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Recursion in morphology Prefixation 2

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  Recursive prefixation is also subject to restrictions: for instance, double negation is generally discarded   En. happy > unhappy > *ununhappy

  However:   En. ununusual 'not uncommon' (Google, 28/08/2009)

  Savants who have the ununusual ability to acquire foreign languages very rapidly cannot learn these artificial languages without considerable difficulty, and then only imperfectly.

  It. Chatto volentieri ma . . . si evitino domande ininsolubili o dovrò dare risposte inintellegibili 'I am willing to chat but... let's avoid ununsolvable question, otherwise I will have to give unintelligible answers' (Google, 28/08/2009)   In this case the reapplication of the negative prefix has an intensifying

function, like with other prefixes


Recursion in morphology Compounding

  Recursion in compounding is generally defined as a process according to which a compound may take another compound as input (cf. e.g. Booij 2007, 2009)   En. student film society committee scandal (Spencer 1991: 310 )   En. White House travel office staff (Booij 2007: 205)

  Germ. Donau-dampf-schiff-fahrts-gesellschaft 'Danube steam ship travel company' (Booij 2007: 205)

  Du. aardappel schil mesje [[aardappel]N [schil]V]V [mesje]N]N

potato peel knife 'knife for peeling potatoes’ (Booij 2007: 205)

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Recursion or embedding?

  What emerges from these definitions is that the term "recursion" is used in related but different senses in morphology

  Often, it is used as the reapplication of the same structure or process (e.g. suffixation) rather than the reapplication of a given morpheme

  Therefore, recursion is used in a broad sense and comes to coincide with embedding and structural complexity

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Today

  Explore a viable definition of recursion   Apply it to a set of data from different languages   The set comprises data belonging to different

Lexeme Formation Processes (LFP), i.e.  Affixation  Compounding   "Phrasal lexical units" or "phrasal words/lexemes"

 Cf. Booij (to appear), Masini (2007, to appear)

  Compare recursion in morphology and syntax

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A definition of recursion

  A certain structure type may contain the reapplication of the same process type

  Structure type  Coordination, i.e. property-preserving  Subordination, i.e. property-changing

  Process type  Copying  Replacing

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Structure type

  Subordination   In morphology subordination is normal, i.e.

embedding   En. confess > confession > confessional > confessionalize

(Lieber 2004: 168)

  Coordination   Is there coordination in morphology?  We intend coordination as the reapplication of a

property-preserving process

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Structure type

  In strict terms, this means that the reapplication does not produce any sensible change of lexical properties   Morphopragmatic affixation

  It. tanto 'very much' → tant-in-uccio ‘very much-DIM-DIM’   It. poco 'little' → poch-ett-ino ‘little-DIM-DIM’

  Interfixes   It. topo 'mouse' → top-one 'big mouse' topone 'big mouse' → top-ol-one 'big mouse' topo 'mouse' → *top-ol-o

  Empty affix application   En. class → classic → classical

Lisbon, 11-09-2009 SLE Workshop on Recursiveness in Word-Formation

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Structure type

  In broader terms, the reapplication of the same process produces some changes, but only of the modification type (modulation)   More lexicalised cases

  It. porta 'door' > portone 'main gate' > portoncino 'wicket'   It. divano 'sofa' > divanetto 'small sofa' > divanettino 'small small sofa'   It. finestra 'window' > finestrino 'small window' > finestrinone 'big small window'   It. campana 'bell' > campanello 'small bell' > campanellino 'small small bell'

  Non lexicalised cases   It. finestra 'window' > finestrone 'big window' > finestroncino 'small big window'   It. gamba 'leg' > gambotta 'small leg' > gambottona 'big small leg'   It. foglio 'sheet' > foglietto 'slip (of paper)' > fogliettino 'small slip (of paper)'


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Process type: copying

  Copying in morphology  Reapplication of a fully specified structure

 L]X M]X M]X

 Reapplication of a partially specified structure  L]X …]X …]X

 Reapplication of a largely unspecified structure  L]X …]Y …]Z

 Reapplication of a completely unspecified structure   [… [… [L]… …]… …]…

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Process type: replacing

  Replacing in morphology?   Affix substitution

  En. minimalism → minimalist   It. trampolino 'diving board' → trampolone 'big/high diving board'

  It. telefonino 'mobile phone' → telefonone 'big mobile phone'   Credo che rimarrò con il mio telefonone motorola [...]

'I think I will keep my big motorola mobile'

  Conversion / recategorization   En. [cook]V > [cook]N

  Back derivation   Germ. Bergsteiger 'mountaineer'→ bergsteigen 'mountaineering'

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Process type: replacing

  Compounds   Italian VN compounds (Ricca 2008)

  [V [N]]N portaombrelli ‘umbrella stand’   [V […]NP ]N [porta [rotolo delle strisce di carta che si

usano per coprire la tavoletta del wc]NP ]N. ‘[roll of paper strips that are used to cover the wc

board] - holder’  Germanic compounds

  [[N] N]N Befreiungstheologie ‘Liberation theology’   [[…]S N]N Gott-ist-tot-Theologie ‘God is dead theology’

Lisbon, 11-09-2009

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SLE Workshop on Recursiveness in Word-Formation

Data

  Now we will empirically explore each copying process type with respect to Lexeme Formation Processes (LFP) and Structure Types

  Lexeme Formation Processes:  Affixation  Compounding   "Phrasal lexical units" or "phrasal words/lexemes"


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Reapplication of a fully specified structure

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  This type of process implies the narrowest possible definition of recursion: the cyclic reapplication of the very same sequence, i.e. of a terminal node

  According to this definition, the category of the input is the same as the category of the output

  Of course, the same sequence must be of the same nature, e.g.

  It. sale 'salt' > salino 'saline' > *salinino 'little saline'


Affixation 28

  Suffixation (evalutative): only coordinative   It. tanto 'very much' > tantino 'quite much' > tantinino 'quite much'

  It. poco 'little' > pochino 'quite little' > pochinino 'quite little'

  It. piccolo 'small'> piccino 'quite small' > piccinino 'quite small'

  Prefixation (se also above): only coordinative   Evaluative

  It. segreto 'secret' > supersegreto 'top-secret' > supersupersegreto 'top-top-secret'

  It. felice 'happy' > strafelice 'really happy' > strastrafelice 'really really happy'

  Iterative: It. scrivere 'to write' > riscrivere 'to re-write' > ririscrivere 'to rerewrite'

  Negative prefixation is excluded because it is always subordinative, i.e. property-changing (cf. also Iacobini 2004: 116)

  It. felice 'happy' > infelice 'unhappy' > *ininfelice 'ununhappy' SLE Workshop on Recursiveness in Word-Formation Lisbon, 11-09-2009

Compounds 29

  VN compounds in Italian: only subordinative   It. portafortuna lit. bring luck 'talisman, amulet' > porta-portafortuna 'talisman holder'

  Synthetic compounds in English: only subordinative

 En. coffee-maker > coffee-maker maker (Roeper & Siegel 1978: 204)


Phrasal words 30

  Reduplication or rather repetition (cf. Gil 2005): only coordinative   It. piano piano lit. slow slow ‘very slow'  En. salad salad

  Contrastive Reduplication (Gomeshi et al. 2004)


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  By "a partially specified structure" we mean a precise kind of affixation process (e.g. evaluative suffixation), a precise kind of compounding process (e.g. VN compounds), and so on.

  Therefore, from here on we have the repetition of a specified branching structure rather than the repetition of a terminal node

  Also in this case input and output categories concide


Reapplication of a partially specified structure

Affixation 32

  Suffixation (evalutative): coordinative   It. tanto 'very much' > tantino 'quite much' > tantinuccio 'quite

much'   It. poco 'little' > pochetto 'quite little' > pochettino 'quite little'

  Prefixation: coordinative  Evaluative

  It. star 'star' > mega-star 'super-star' > super-mega-star 'super-mega-star'

  Iterative   It. dividere 'to divide' > sud-dividere 'to subdivide' > ri-sud-

dividere 'to subdivide again'


Compounds 33

  VN compounds in Italian: only subordinative

  It. asciugaVmaniN lit. dry hands 'towel' > portaVasciugamaniN lit. bring towel 'towel holder'

  It. stuzzicaVdentiN lit. pick teeth 'toothpick' > portaVstuzzicadentiN 'toothpick holder'


Compounds 34

  AdjAdj compounds: coordinative   [Adj Adj]Adj > [Adj [Adj Adj]Adj]Adj It. angloAdj-russoAdj 'Anglo-Russian' > angloAdj-russoAdj –canadeseAdj

'Anglo-Russian-Canadian'

  AdjAdj compounds: subordinative   [Adj Adj]Adj > [Adj [Adj Adj]Adj]Adj

En. lightAdj-blueAdj > darkAdj-lightAdj-blueAdj

  Her Net Navi is like Roll with a few exceptions; the blue and white and dark light blue bodysuit, the white gloves and boots with singular emerald rings at ends, the cute blue helmet with emerald ribbon like antennae, the blue ponytail without a bow, her icon emblazoned on her chest, and the pretty blue eyes (Google, 28/08/2009)


Phrasal words 35

  N+Adj phrasal nouns in Italian: only subordinative

  [N Adj]N > [[N Adj]N Adj]N

  It. risonanza magnetica 'magnetic resonance' > risonanza magnetica nucleare 'nuclear magnetic resonance'

  [N Adj]N > [[N Adj]N Adj]N > [[[N Adj]N Adj]N Adj]N

  It. stazione spaziale 'space station' > stazione spaziale orbitante 'orbital space station' > stazione spaziale orbitante permanente 'permanent orbital

space station'


Phrasal words 36

  N+Prep+N phrasal nouns in Italian: only subordinative   SAME PREPOSITION

  [N Prepi N]N > [[N Prepi N]N Prepi N]N It. mezzi di comunicazione 'media' > mezzi di comunicazione di massa 'mass

media'   [N Prepi N]N > [N Prep [N Prepi N]N]N

It. arma da fuoco 'gun' > ferita da arma da fuoco 'gunshot wound' It. consiglio dei ministri 'ministerial board' > presidenza del consiglio dei ministri

'prime ministership, premiership'

  DIFFERENT PREPOSITION   [N Prepi N]N > [N Prepj [N Prepi N]N]N It. piè di pagina 'foot/bottom of the page' > nota a piè di pagina 'footnote' It. stato di ebbrezza 'drunkenness' > guida in stato di ebbrezza 'drink-driving'


Reapplication of a largely unspecified structure

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  This type of process refers to the definition of recursion usually employed in morphological studies:  Recursion is the reapplication of a process, for

instance prefixation, regardless of the kind of process (evaluative prefix, reiterative prefix, negative prefix, etc.)

  In this case, input and output categories might not coincide


Affixation 38

  Suffixation   En. confessV > confessionN > confessionalAdj >

confessionalizeV (Lieber 2004: 168)   It. RomaN 'Rome' > romanoAdj 'Roman' > romanitàAdj

'Romanity'   It. pregareV 'to pray' > preghieraN 'prayer' > preghierinaN 'little

prayer'   Prefixation

  It. morale 'moral' > a-morale 'amoral' > ultra-a-morale 'hyper-amoral'

  It. felice 'happy' > in-felice 'unhappy' > arci-in-felice 'very unhappy' (Scalise 1994: 244)


Affix chains

  Reapplication of the same process is possible, when the structural conditions are met   En. nation-al-iz-ation-al   En. natur-al-iz-ation-al

  En. confess-ion-al-iz-at-ion

  En. academ-ic-ist-ic

  However, this reapplication is severely restricted   In a 75 million tokens corpus based on an Italian newspaper, the

sequence -al-izza-zion-ale is not attested at all and the sequence -ic-ist-ico is only attested for a handful of highly frequent (and partially opaque) derivatives (Gaeta 2005)

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Compounds 40

  It. guardaVrobaN 'wardrobe' > armadio guardarobaN 'wardrobe'   [N [V N]N]N (Scalise & Bisetto 2008: 138)

  En. White House travel office staff   [ [ [A N]N [N N]N] N]N (Booij 2007: 76)

  Ru. maslo-syr-o-zavod 'butter and cheese industry'   [[N N]N N]N

  It. cromo-danza-musico-terapia 'cromo-dance-musico-therapy'   [ [N [N N]N]N N]N (Google)


Phrasal words 41

  It. [N Adj]N > [N Prep [N Adj]N]N

  lavoro dipendente 'employment' > reddito da lavoro dipendente 'salary'

  partecipazione statale 'state industry/holding' > ente a partecipazione statale 'state-controlled organization'

  It. [N Conj N]N > [N Prep [N Conj N]N]N

  stelle e strisce 'stars and stripes' > bandiera a stelle e strisce 'stars and stripes flag'

  bianco e nero 'black and white' > film in bianco e nero 'black-and-white film'


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  This process is maximally abstract and can be hardly regarded as recursion

  Needless to say that, in this case, input and output categories might well not coincide


Reapplication of a completely unspecified structure

Some examples 43

  Prefixation+Suffixation   En. happy > unhappy > unhappiness   It. casa 'house' > casetta 'little house' > supercasetta 'fantastic

little house'

  Compounding+Prefixation   It. capostazione 'station master' > excapostazione 'former

station master'

  Compounding+Suffixation   It. crocerossa 'Red Cross' > crocerossina 'Red Cross nurse'

  Compounding+Phrasal word   It. carta igienica 'toilet paper' > porta-carta igienica 'toilet paper

holder' SLE Workshop on Recursiveness in Word-Formation Lisbon, 11-09-2009

Conclusion

  Comparing recursion in syntax and morphology

  Recursion in syntax is both copying and replacing

  Instead, replacing is not a common process type for morphology

  On the other hand, the other process type (copying) is fairly well attested with an increasing degree of complexity

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Conclusion

  However, also in this case recursion is severely restricted  With fully or partially specified structures, only

coordinative structure types generally allow for recursion

 Subordinative structure types are only possible with largely or completely unspecified affixation and with compounds and phrasal words  However, the reapplication of the same morpheme in

an affix chain is severely restricted

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Delimiting the domain of recursion 46

  We suggest that a morphological operation is recursive when the same category shows up on both sides of the arrow   [X Y]Y → [X [X Y]Y]Y

  If this criterion is adopted, then it follows that only some of the mentioned operations can be regarded as properly recursive, whereas the others produce embedded or simply complex structures

  This very abstract recursion formula makes it explicit that property-changing morphological and lexical operations cannot be really recursive


Delimiting the domain of recursion in morphology

Reapplication of a fully specified structure

Reapplication of a partially specified structure

Reapplication of a largely unspecified structure

Reapplication of a completely unspecified structure

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RECURSION

EMBEDDING OR

STRUCTURAL COMPLEXITY


What is recursion?

Recursion Embedding or structural complexity

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What is recursion?

? Recursion

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References   Aronoff, M. & N. Fuhrhop (2002), Restricting Suffix Combinations in German and English: Closing Suffixes and the Monosuffix Constraint, in

Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 20, 451-490.   Baayen, H., T. Kryuchkova & A. Vickerman (2009), Ordering constraints in English derivation and compounding, talk given at the 2nd

Vienna Workshop on Affix Order Affix, Wien 5-6 June 2009.   Booij, G. (2000), Inflection and derivation, in Booij, G. et al. (eds.), Morphology. An International Handbook on Inflection and Word

formation, Vol. 1, Berlin, Walter de Gruyter, 360-369.   Booij, G. (to appear), Phrasal names, a constructionist analysis, in Word Structure 2/2 (2009).   Booij, G. (2007), The Grammar of Words, 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxford University Press.   Booij, G. (2009), Construction morphology and compounding, in Lieber , R. & P. Stekauer (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Compounding,

Oxford, Oxford University Press, 201-216.   Culicover, P. (2009), Natural Language Syntax, Oxford, Oxford University Press.   Dressler, W.U. (1989), Prototypical differences between inflection and derivation, in Zeitrschrift für Phonologie, Sprachwissenschaft und

Kommunikationsforschung 42, 3-10.   Gaeta, L. (2005), Combinazioni di suffissi in italiano, in Grossmann, M. & A.M. Thornton (eds.), La formazione delle parole, Roma, Bulzoni,

229-247.   Gil, D. (2005), From Repetition to Reduplication in Riau Indonesian, in Hurch, B. (ed.), Studies on Reduplication, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin,

31-64.   Gomeshi, J. et al. (2004), Contrastive focus reduplication in English (the salad-salad paper), in Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 22,

307–357.   Grandi, N. (2008), I verbi deverbali suffissati in italiano: dai dizionari al Web, Cesena/Roma, Caissa Italia.   Hauser, M. D., N. Chomsky & W. T. Fitch (2002), The Faculty of Language: What Is It, Who Has It, and How Did It Evolve?, in Science 298:

1569-1579.   Iacobini, C. (2004), Prefissazione, in Grossmann M. & F. Rainer (eds.), La formazione delle parole in italiano, Tübingen, Niemeyer, 97-163.   Jackendoff, R. (2007), Language, Consciousness, Culture, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.   Katamba, Francis (1993), Morphology, London, Macmillian.   Lieber, R. (2004), Morphology and Lexical Semantics, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.   Masini, F. (2007), Parole sintagmatiche in italiano [Phrasal words in Italian], PhD Dissertation, Roma Tre University.   Masini, F. (to appear), Phrasal lexemes, compounds and phrases: a constructionist perspective, in Word Structure 2/2 (2009).   Matthews, P. H. (1991), Morphology, 2nd edition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.   Plag, I. (2003), Word Formation in English, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.   Plag, I. & R.H. Baayen (2009), Suffix ordering and morphological processing., in Language 85(1), 109-152.   Ricca, D. (2008), VN Compounds in Italian: Data from Corpora and Theoretical Issues, talk given at the CompoNet Congress on

Compounding, Bologna, 6/7 June 2008.   Roeper, T. & M. Siegel (1978), A lexical transformation for verbal compounds, in Linguistic Inquiry 9, 199-206.   Scalise, S. (1994), Morfologia, Bologna, Il Mulino.   Scalise, S. & A. Bisetto (2008), La struttura delle parole, Bologna, Il Mulino.   Spencer, A. (1991), Morphological theory: an introduction to word structure in generative grammar, Oxford, Blackwell.

Combinatorial vs. syntactic

  Jackendoff (2007: 39)   “It is important to distinguish two interpretations of

“syntactic” here. In the broader sense, every combinatorial system has a syntax: mathematics, computer languages, music, and even phonology and semantics. In the narrower sense of technical linguistics, “syntactic” denotes the organization of units such as NPs, VPs, and prepositions”.

  “[scil. Phonological] structures, though hierarchical, are not recursive, in that, unlike syntactic structures, they cannot be embedded indefinitely deeply into other structures of the same type. Thus the principles governing these structures are not derivable from syntactic structures; they are an autonomous system of generative rules”.

Lisbon, 11-09-2009

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SLE Workshop on Recursiveness in Word-Formation

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SLE Workshop - Recursiveness in Word-Formation - Lisbon ...francescamasini.caissa.it/Presentations_files/lisbona_slides_def.pdf · Recursion in morphology Inflection vs. derivation