Abstract
In this paper I examine in some detail the declension of Latvian nouns and adjectives in the light of a descriptive framework for morphology that I have developed in a number of recent papers (Halle 1990a, 1990b). The data examined provide clear evidence for the need to distinguish gender from inflection class, a distinction that is also supported by the facts from other languages reviewed in this volume in the papers by Harris, Hoberman, and Aronoff. In addition — and perhaps more importantly — the Latvian facts illuminate the central role played in the morphology by — what I have called — abstract morphemes and shed interesting new light on the ordering of rules, in particular, on the issue of disjunctive rule order and default rules.
I am grateful to M. Kenstowicz, A. Marantz and R. Noyer for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. The present study supersedes the proposal I made in Halle (1987). I am attempting to extend to the Latin declension the approach developed in this paper. When completed this study will also supersede the account of the Latin declension in Halle (1990a), which no longer seems satisfactory to me.
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© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Halle, M. (1992). The Latvian declension. In: Booij, G., van Marle, J. (eds) Yearbook of Morphology 1991. Yearbook of Morphology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2516-1_4
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