The Oxford Handbook of Morphological Theory

This volume is the first handbook devoted entirely to the multitude of frameworks adopted in the field of morphology, including Minimalism, Optimality Theory, Network Morphology, Cognitive Grammar, and Canonical Typology.

Following an introduction from the editors, the first part of the volume offers critical discussions of the main theoretical issues within morphology, both in word formation and in inflection, as well as providing a short history of morphological theory. In the core part of the handbook, part II, each theory is introduced by an expert in the field, who guides the reader through its principles and technicalities, its advantages and disadvantages, and its points of agreement and disagreement with alternative theories. Chapters in part III explore the bigger picture, connecting morphological theory to other subdisciplines of linguistics, such as diachronic change, language acquisition, psycholinguistics, and sign language theory. The handbook is intended as a guide for morphologists from all theoretical backgrounds who want to learn more about frameworks other than their own, as well as for linguists in related subfields looking for theoretical connections with the field of morphology.

Jenny Audring, Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Leiden University, Francesca Masini, Associate Professor of Linguistics, University of Bologna

Jenny Audring is Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Leiden University. She specializes in morphology and has written extensively on grammatical gender. Her research interests range from linguistic complexity and Canonical Typology to Construction Morphology and morphological theory. She is the co-editor, with Sebastian Fedden and Greville G. Corbett, of Non-Canonical Gender Systems (OUP 2018) and co-author, with Ray Jackendoff, of The Texture of the Lexicon: Relational Morphology and the Parallel Architecture (OUP, 2020).

Francesca Masini is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Bologna. Her research interests are in semantics, morphology and the lexicon, primarily within Construction Grammar and Construction Morphology. Her main focus is on multiword expressions, word classes, lexical typology, and the lexicon-syntax interface. She is currently Associate Editor of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Morphology, a special project of The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics.