Compounding and variational morphology: the analysis of inflection in Spanish compounds
Authors: Buenafuentes Cristina 
Published: July 2014

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 28.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 1.0cm; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 28.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 1.0cm; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This paper analyzes the morphological variation related to gender and number in Spanish compounding such as plural noun in [V+N]<sub><span style="font-variant: small-caps;">n</span></sub>compounds (<em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">el</em><em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lavaplatos</em>, not<em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> el lavaplato</em>; <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">el cazamariposas</em>, not <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">*el cazamariposa</em>), the gender and number asymmetries between the actual compound and its parts (cabeza<sub>fem<em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">. </em></sub>+ cuadrada<sub>fem<em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.</em></sub><em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </em></span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS'; mso-hansi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">à</span></span><em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> el</span></em><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">cabeza cuadrada</em><sub>masc.</sub>, relaciones<sub>fem<em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.</em> pl. </sub>+ públicas<sub>fem<em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.</em> pl.</sub><em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </em></span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS'; mso-hansi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">à</span></span><em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> el relaciones públicas</span></em><sub><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">masc. sing.</span></sub><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">), the presence of inflectional markers inside compounds (<em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sord-o-muda</em><sub>fem</sub>, not *<em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sord-a-muda</em><sub>fem.</sub>), and the variation that takes place in many plural compounds (<em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">casas cuartel</em> or <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">casas cuarteles </em>‘house quarter’, <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">coches cama </em>or<em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> coches camas </em>‘car and bed’). Basing ourselves on the classic model of level ordering with an admixture of Booij's distinction between inherent and contextual inflection, this piece of research proves that these cases of morphological variation can be approached as a morphological component, accessible to syntax. This model also relativizes the importance of the head in compounding and highlights the value of morphology, lexis and syntax interfaces.</span></p>