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Article published In:
Linguistics in the Netherlands 2022
Edited by Jorrig Vogels and Sterre Leufkens
[Linguistics in the Netherlands 39] 2022
► pp. 263–278

There is more to the morphology of -š/ -iš

The comparative in Ukrainian

| KU Leuven

There are two comparative suffixes in Ukrainian: the productive -iš, and the non-productive -š. Following Caha et al. (2019) I show that just like in Czech, the distribution of these two suffixes in Ukrainian is regulated not by phonology, but by morphosyntax. The theory of Nanosyntax (Starke 2009) is used in order to account for the data. The comparative meaning is represented in syntax not by one but by two functional heads. To be more precise, I propose that in Ukrainian -iš is decomposed into two morphemes -i and -š, where -i spells out the lower head and -š spells out the higher one. The issue of suppletive adjectives is discussed as well. I argue that suppletion can be accounted for using the nanosyntactic concept of pointers. As a result, this approach helps to explain the mechanism behind allomorphy of the comparative suffix in regular and suppletive adjectives in Ukrainian.

Keywords: morphology, nanosyntax, comparatives, suppletion, allomorphy, Ukrainian
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background: DegP and Nanosyntax
    • 2.1DegP
    • 2.2Nanosyntax
  • 3.The choice between -š and -iš is morphologically conditioned
    • 3.1Regular Ukrainian adjectives
    • 3.2Suppletive Ukrainian adjectives
    • 3.3Disuppletion: Possible solutions
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 4 November 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/avt.00073.vys
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