What is Morphology?

What is Morphology? is a concise and critical introduction to the central ideas of morphology, which has been revised and expanded to include additional material on morphological productivity and the mental lexicon, experimental and computational methods, and new teaching material.

• •  Introduces the fundamental aspects of morphology to students with minimal background in linguistics
• •  Includes additional material on morphological productivity and the mental lexicon, and experimental and computational methods
• •  Features new and revised exercises as well as suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter
• •  Equips students with the skills to analyze a wide breadth of classic morphological issues through engaging examples
• •  Uses cross-linguistic data throughout to illustrate concepts, specifically referencing Kujamaat Joola, a Senegalese language
• •  Includes a new answer key, available for instructors online at http://www.wiley.com/go/aronoff

  Assuming only the most basic background in linguistics, What is Morphology? provides a concise, critical introduction to the central ideas and perennial problems of morphology. Designed to familiarize beginning students and specialists alike with the importance of morphology as a subject of research, this reader-friendly volume moves organically from the morphological “facts of everyday life” to important relationships with phonology, syntax, and semantics.
   

This second edition builds on the previous one, expanding chapters on morphological productivity and the mental lexicon, and adding coverage of experimental and computational methods. Aronoff and Fudeman have revised and expanded the exercises and added suggestions for further reading to each chapter. Data from Kujamaat Joola, a West African language, is used throughout the book to explain and clarify new ideas presented. What is Morphology? equips readers with the skills to analyze a wealth of classic morphological issues through engaging narration and by direct example.

Review

“This characteristic of the book particularly recommends it for teaching, as it is often the case that undergraduate students are reluctant to engage in argumentation and favor prescriptive contents. This book manages to lure the student into thinking and arguing rather than learning definitions.”  (Anglistik, 2 September 2012)

“The intended audience is undergraduate students in linguistics but the text is accessible enough for a person from a general audience wanting to understand the basic concepts in morphological theory and practice in linguistics.” (Linguist, 25 June 2011)

“Aronoff and Fudeman have produced a clear and jargon-free introduction to contemporary morphological theory and practice. The book succeeds particularly in clarifying the empirical content, organizational principles and analytic techniques that distinguish morphology from other areas of linguistics.”
—James P. Blevins, University of Cambridge

“Aronoff and Fudeman have provided an extremely pleasant tour of the issues in modern morphological theory for beginning students. The rich collection of exercises will be a godsend to instructors and students alike, and the thread of discussion of a single language throughout the book is a brilliant stroke that other texts should emulate.”
Stephen R. Anderson, Yale University

“This unusual book combines a basic start on morphology with an introduction to Kujamaat Jóola. It is a fine addition to teaching materials on morphology: a book for beginners to use with a teacher, yet one from which any linguist could learn. The authors intend students to develop ‘a lasting taste for morphology’. I think many will.”
Greville Corbett, University of Surrey, Guildford

“Morphology has its own organizing principles, distinct from those of syntax, phonology, and the lexicon. Too many morphology textbooks obscure this fascinating fact, but Aronoff and Fudeman refreshingly make it the cornerstone of their exposition.”
Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy, University of Canterbury

About the Author

Mark Aronoff is Professor of Linguistics at Stony Brook University (SUNY). He is co-editor, with Janie Rees-Miller, of The Handbook of Linguistics (Wiley-Blackwell, 2001), and served as editor of the journal Language from 1995 to 2000.

Kirsten Fudeman is Professor of French at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the author of Vernacular Voices: Language and Identity in Medieval French Jewish Communities (2010).