Two ways of being silent: underived nominalizations

Authors

  • Antonio Fábregas
Keywords: nominalization, desinence, synthetic morphology, zero suffix, interface syntax-morphology and semantics-morphology

Abstract

The research on the properties of nominalizations is one key empirical domain where crucial questions about the organization of grammar have tried to be answered: how are the morphology, the syntax and the semantics of a word intertwined? In this paper we address zero derived deverbal nouns in Spanish (the equivalent of attack) and we argue that, despite the presence of a desinence, this morpheme cannot be responsible for the grammatical category of the word. It is not empirically correct to propose, either, that there is a zero nominalizer in Spanish. We argue that the solution is to let the base of the word synthetically spell out both the nominalizer and the verb.

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How to Cite
Fábregas, A. (2011). Two ways of being silent: underived nominalizations. Journal of Linguistic Research, 14, 167–189. Retrieved from https://revistas.um.es/ril/article/view/142321