The Morphology of Dutch
Geert Booij · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2019
This book is the first fully-fledged description of the morphological system of Dutch in English. Inflection, derivation, and compounding are each discussed in separate chapters, following a short exposé on the basic assumptions of morphological theory. The interaction of morphology with phonology and syntax is dealt with subsequently. The chapters also provide access to more detailed studies of Dutch that have appeared in the Dutch and international literature. The book shows that the morphology of Dutch poses many interesting descriptive and theoretical issues. It contributes to ongoing discussions on the nature and representation of morphological processes, the role of paradigmatic relations between words, and between words and phrases, and the interaction between morphology, phonology, and syntax. Crucial use is made of the notion ‘construction’, a systematic pairing of form and meaning. The theoretical implication of this analysis of Dutch morphology is that the grammar of natural languages has to be conceived of a multi-dimensional network of abstract morphological and syntactic patterns and their instantiations as individual words and phrases. The book will be of relevance to students of Germanic languages, general linguists, typologists, computational linguists, and psycholinguists.