Process morphology

Abstract The counterpart to morphologically conditioned phonology is morphology which is manifested as a phonological process other than concatenation of morphemes. When such a process is the sole mark of a morphological category, the interchangeable terms “realizational morphology” and “process morphology” apply. This chapter surveys process morphology and compares it to morphologically conditioned phonology. Process morphology is a challenge to morphological theories which are highly item-based: not every case of process morphology can be reanalyzed as additive. How a particular phonological process is characterized—as morphologically conditioned phonology or process morphology—is highly relevant to the diagnosis of multiple exponence. The close study of process morphology potentially informs theories of morphologically conditioned phonology and bears on the testing of hypotheses regarding the range of variation within a given language in its phonological patterns.