Reconstruction in Morphology

Abstract

Abstract The linguistic literature gives little guidance on how to do morphological reconstruction. I propose a few basic procedures for morphological reconstruction and compare them to procedures needed for other kinds of linguistic reconstruction. Since so much of morphological reconstruction depends on knowing what morphological changes are possible, I present a typology of morphological change with comments on the reconstruction procedures that follow from each. Finally I illustrate the methodology in a few case studies where aspects of the morphology of Australian languages, principally of the Arandic subgroup’ of Central Australia, are reconstructed. The comparative linguist who wants to do morphological reconstruction will not find much guidance in the existing literature on how to go about the task. This stands in sharp contrast to the copious discussions available on the comparative method for reconstructing phonology. On the other hand, we find statements acknowledging that non phonological reconstruction is more difficult than phonological reconstruction because of the lack of regularity in changes and our more limited understanding of what kinds of changes are natural or common (Hock 1991: 609 f, 592).

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