Whamit!

The Weekly Newsletter of MIT Linguistics

MorPhun 10/15 – Stan presents Collins 2018 and De Clercq & Vanden Wyngaerd 2017

Speaker: Stan Zompi (MIT)
Title: Stan presents Collins 2018 and De Clercq & Vanden Wyngaerd 2017
Date and time: Monday 10/15, 5-6pm
Location: 32-D831
Abstract:

We’re glad to announce that MorPhun will be back this Monday 10/15 at 5pm. Stan will lead our discussion on two recent papers on contextual allomorphy: Collins 2018 (https://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004176) and De Clercq & Vanden Wyngaerd (Link: https://www.glossa-journal.org/articles/abstract/10.5334/gjgl.371/). Here’s his abstract: 

“The discussion will revolve around two recent attempts to rethink contextual allomorphy. Collins (2018) outlines an approach to allomorphy that eschews reference to competition or blocking, and attempts to model allomorph distribution simply in terms of classic c-selection. De Clercq & Vanden Wyngaerd (2017), on the other hand, suggest that contextual allomorphy may just not exist: what are normally thought to be alternative allomorphs of one and the same morpheme actually are always portmanteau realizations of slightly different chunks of structure. We will compare both of these novel approaches to the standard treatment of contextual allomorphy in DM.”