Publisher's Synopsis
The field of morphology has gained expanded importance in contemporary linguistics with the realization that it can no longer be narrowly construed as the study of the means by which complex words are formed. Rather, the study of morphology must be situated in the context of our understanding of the mental lexicon as a whole. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Morphology offers a sweeping introduction to the field, showing that morphology is not only an active area of study in its own right, but also a critical link between different subfields of linguistics. Led by Editor in Chief Rochelle Lieber and an editorial board of international experts, this collection includes 115 wide-ranging and in-depth articles, encompassing all aspects of morphology, such as morphological units, inflection, derivation, compounding, and formal morphological means. Contributors at the forefront of the field discuss the major theoretical debates and methodological approaches, exploring the interface between morphology and phonology, syntax, and semantics, along with psycholinguistic, neurolinguistics, and sociolinguistic issues. The final section of the encyclopedia presents illustrative sketches of the morphological systems of a wide range of language families, from Arawak and Dravidian to Sino-Tibetan and Indo-European, offering a wide range of cross-linguistic data that will be useful to both researchers and teachers.
