Category-Changing Morphology: English Root Families

@cite{marantz-1997}

Theory-neutral empirical data on English roots that surface across multiple lexical categories via different morphological processes.

Data Source

Standard examples from the Distributed Morphology literature.

Empirical Generalization

Many English roots can appear as nouns, verbs, and adjectives. The category of the resulting word is determined by the morphological environment (suffixation, zero-derivation, syntactic context), not by inherent properties of the root itself.

inductive Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.LexCat : Type

The lexical category of a word form (theory-neutral).

• noun : LexCat
• verb : LexCat
• adjective : LexCat

def Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.instReprLexCat.repr : LexCat → Nat → Std.Format

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instance Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.instReprLexCat : Repr LexCat

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• Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.instReprLexCat = { reprPrec := Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.instReprLexCat.repr }

instance Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.instDecidableEqLexCat : DecidableEq LexCat

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• Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.instDecidableEqLexCat x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯

instance Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.instBEqLexCat : BEq LexCat

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• Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.instBEqLexCat = { beq := Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.instBEqLexCat.beq }

def Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.instBEqLexCat.beq : LexCat → LexCat → Bool

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• Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.instBEqLexCat.beq x✝ y✝ = (x✝.ctorIdx == y✝.ctorIdx)

structure Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.RootFamily : Type

A root family: a set of word forms derived from a common root, each appearing in a different lexical category.

• rootLabel : String

  Label for the root (approximate; roots are sub-morphemic)

• forms : List (String × LexCat)

  Word forms and their categories

def Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.instReprRootFamily.repr : RootFamily → Nat → Std.Format

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instance Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.instReprRootFamily : Repr RootFamily

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• Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.instReprRootFamily = { reprPrec := Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.instReprRootFamily.repr }

def Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.RootFamily.hasCategory (rf : RootFamily) (c : LexCat) : Bool

Does this root family have a form in the given category?

Equations

• rf.hasCategory c = rf.forms.any fun (x : String × Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.LexCat) => x.snd == c

def Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.RootFamily.categoryCount (rf : RootFamily) : Nat

How many distinct categories does this root family span?

Equations

• rf.categoryCount = (List.map (fun (x : String × Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.LexCat) => x.snd) rf.forms).eraseDups.length

def Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.destroy : RootFamily

√DESTROY: destroy (V), destruction (N), destructive (A)

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def Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.beauty : RootFamily

√BEAUTY: beautify (V), beauty (N), beautiful (A)

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def Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.clear : RootFamily

√CLEAR: clear (V), clarity (N), clear (A)

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def Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.produce : RootFamily

√PRODUCE: produce (V), product/production (N), productive (A)

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def Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.create : RootFamily

√CREATE: create (V), creation (N), creative (A)

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def Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.act : RootFamily

√ACT: act (V), action (N), active (A)

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def Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.allFamilies : List RootFamily

All sample root families.

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theorem Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.all_families_tricategorial : (allFamilies.all fun (x : RootFamily) => x.hasCategory LexCat.noun) = true ∧ (allFamilies.all fun (x : RootFamily) => x.hasCategory LexCat.verb) = true ∧ (allFamilies.all fun (x : RootFamily) => x.hasCategory LexCat.adjective) = true

Every root in our sample spans all three categories.

theorem Phenomena.Morphology.CategoryChanging.all_families_three_forms : (allFamilies.all fun (rf : RootFamily) => rf.forms.length == 3) = true

Every root in our sample has exactly 3 forms.