The Exponence of Spanish Complex Morphological Classes (La exponencia de las clases morfológicas complejas del español)

Abstract

This work defends that the notion of morphological class is essential to understanding the structure of nominal words in Spanish (nouns, adjectives and adverbs). Contrary to proposals such as Bermúdez-Otero (2006a, 2006b, 2013), the stance that complex morphological classes do not exist is rejected and the entire inventory of morphological classes in Spanish is explored paying special attention to the complex morphological classes, which due to being the least frequent are those that have received less attention in the bibliography. Morphological classes are analyzed bearing in mind both parts of their sign: the signifier and the signified. After determining the entire number of classes and their morphs, a frequency count is realised in order to determine the productivity of each class. The results of this count challenge the theory of markedness, which is the foundation of formal analyses such as those of Harris (1983, 1985, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999). A new inventory of morphological class features is proposed, based upon the phonological structure of their morphs. This new inventory expands that of Harris (1992) in order to acknowledge existing relations between the simple and the complex morphological classes that, despite being different, make use of the same features. In addition, this inventory disregards the recommendations of the theory of markedness, whose predictions are contrary to the facts.