Contemporary morphological theories : a users guide Acknowledgements Abbreviations Foreword. 1 Opening the discussion : Morphology: what and why Theory and metatheory The continua: how to interpret a table Morpheme based versus word lexeme based Formalist versus functionalist In grammar versus in lexicon Phonological versus syntactic formalism Incremental versus realisational The road ahead. 2 Theory profiles : A brief prologue A morphous morphology Autolexical syntax automodular grammar Categorial morphology Construction morphology Distributed morphology Lexeme morpheme base morphology Lexical morphology and phonology stratal optimality theory Minimalist morphology Natural morphology The network model Network morphology Paradigm function morphology Prosodic morphology Word based morphology Word syntax Overview. 3 Time for a test drive: putting descriptive framework through their paces : Purpose of this chapter 3.1 Scottish Gaelic nouns: initial consonant mutation : A morphous morphology Autolexical syntax automodular grammar Categorial morphology Construction morphology Distributed morphology Lexeme morpheme base morphology Lexical morphology and phonology stratal optimality theory Minimalist morphology Natural morphology Paradigm function morphology Prosodic morphology Word based morphology Word syntax What is at stake here 3.2 Georgian verbs: agreement marker disjunctivity : A morphous morphology Autolexical syntax automodular grammar Categorial morphology Construction morphology Distributed morphology Lexeme morpheme base morphology Lexical morphology and phonology stratal optimality theory Minimalist morphology Natural morphology The network model Network morphology Paradigm function morphology Prosodic morphology Word based morphology Word syntax What is at stake here 3.3 Sanskrit gerunds: prefix suffix interaction : A morphous morphology Autolexical syntax automodular grammar Caterorial morphology Construction morphology Distributed morphology Lexeme morpheme base morphology Lexical morphology and phonology stratal optimality theory Minimalist morphology Natural morphology The network model Network morphology Paradigm function morphology Prosodic morphology Word based morphology Word syntax What is at stake here 4 Broadening the discussion : The search for definition Typology Productivity Fair comparison Outro. References Index Provides a valuable guide to existing approaches in morphological analysis. Analyzing three descriptive challenges for morphology (Scottish Gaelic nouns Georgian verbs and Sanskrit compound verbs) and comparing and contrasting the backgrounds and fundamentals of leading approaches to word structure and lexical relationships this book explores the way each framework proceeds from its authors basic assumptions revealing how they can either complement or compete with other approaches.