Variability in the morphological structure of Spanish nouns

Abstract

The proposals made over the last decades with respect to the formation of diminutives, stress assignment, plural formation and so-called word markers in the realm of Spanish nominal morphology refer ultimately to the morphological structure of Spanish nouns. The most relevant of them may be characterized as phonological (cf. Harris 1983, Roca 1989 and Baković in press, among others) or morphological (cf. Hooper and Terrell 1976, Harris 1991, 1992, Bermúdez-Otero 2006, 2007 and Bonet 2006 among others), depending on the nature of the factors on which their generalizations are based. We attempt to show, first, that beyond the difference just alluded to, the analyses proposed in both kinds of approach have the effect of stripping these segments of anything they could have in terms of morphological features, in contradiction to proposals such as those of Lloret (2013), Mel’čuk (2013) and, to a lesser extent, Roca and Feliú (2002). On the other hand, these analyses cannot prevent either forms which are identical in their final segments and accentual patterns to behave diversely in one or several morphological processes, or forms different in their final segments and their accentual patterns to behave in similar fashion in such processes. This situation is compounded by the fact that one single nominal may behave differently in the realm of one or more morphological processes.

  We suggest that there is a correlation between the differences and similarities observed between different nominal forms on the one hand and, on the other hand, the variability that occurs with some single nominal forms. From this point of view, the study of the variability of Spanish nouns may have very interesting consequences for morphological representation and, in this regard, encourages attempts, such as the one undertaken here, to examine the correlations that may exist between the morphological representations which are possible with a given nominal form and the way such a form behaves in different morphological processes. To this effect, we will consider the sources of the variability evidenced in Spanish nominal forms before studying its scope, the status and functions of their final or prefinal segments, as well as the implications of our observations for the morphological representation of Spanish nouns and their behaviour in different morphological processes. To conclude, we emphasize the need to study more thoroughly the morphological characterization of the (pre) final segments of the nominal forms, as well as its impact on the behaviour of the latter in different morphological processes.