Theory of Descriptive Linguistics - Morphology

- Pre-theoretical understanding of the concept "word". Generative approach to word theory: an explanatory description of the native speaker's knowledge of words.

- Arbitrariness of linguistic sign. The predictability of the manner in which the meaning components are expressed in a word.

- Concatenative linear morphology. The model of morphological distribution. The model of morphological processes.

- Phonological, morphological and morphophonological processes.

- Morphology of the early generative grammar (Chomsky 1957; 1968; 1970; Lees 1960; Chomsky & Halle 1968).

- Morphology of standard generative grammar (Halle 1973 ). The interaction of phonology and morphology (Kiparsky 1982, 1985). The hypothesis of extrinsic ordering of affixes in a word (Siegel 1979, Selkirk 1982, Aronoff 1976) and its disadvantages.

- Word-formation versus inflection (Scalise 1988). Inflection as the part of morphology relevant in syntax; what is relevant for syntax depending on the theory of syntax.

- Compounding in morphology and syntax. Lees 1960: compounds are a tranformationally reduced form of a deep proposition. Phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic differences between a compound and a syntactic phrase. Similarities between the principles in word formation and principles in sentence formation (Baker 1987; Roeper 1988; Williams 1981, Selkirk 1982, Lieber 1983, Toman 1983).

- Incorporation. Baker's Mirror Principle. Pros and cons of a syntactic nature of incorporation (Baker 1985, 1988; Williams in di Sciullo 1989).

- Endocentric nature of the word (Williams 1981) and word phrase; hierarchic structure of the word and word phrase; argument sturucture relations of word parts and of sentence parts; the rule Move Alpha in word and sentence.

- Two alternative approaches of modern generative morphology:
The hypothesis that one system of rules underlies morphology and syntax;
Lexicalist hypothesis on syntactic impenetrability of the word: the interaction of syntactic and morphological algorithm is captured by substantive universals and principles, a common morphological and syntactic process.

- Minimalist theory as a theory of morphosytactic features and their role in the syntax component.