Multifunctionality in Morphology (J6-4614)

The central question addressed by the Multifunctionality in Morphology project is how to adequately account for (derivational) affixes that can appear in different, seemingly unrelated contexts and that have little meaning of their own. The project focuses primarily on Slovenian, relying on the initial descriptions of multifunctionality, which show that Slovenian is an ideal source of data for researching this phenomenon, since in in Slovenian, multifunctional affixes can be found in all major categories (nouns, verbs and adjectives).

One simple example of this is Slovenian derivational morphemes realized as -in. To name a few representative contexts, -in can be found in possessive adjectives derived from feminine nouns (sestr-a, sestr-in ‘sister.f, sister’s’), in (feminine) collective nouns such as mlad-in-a ‘youth’ (from the adjective mlad ‘young’; here -a is the case/number ending for nom.sg) or nouns naming type of flesh, such as goved-in-a (from goved-o 'cattle.n’), nouns for property holder, as in dolg-in ‘tall man’ (from dolg ‘long.a’), and as a collective affix, alone or in combination with the more common collective affix -je as in the triplet vrb-in-a, vrb-in-je, vrb-je – all three items meaning several willow trees (vrba 'willow', note that vrbinje and vrbina are less common).

The project is separated into three components where the empirical component of the project will establish a new set of data that will serve as the basis for the descriptive and theoretical components. As part of the empirical component, annotated databases of nouns, adjectives and adverbs will be built, and an existing database of verbs WeSoSlaV (Arsenijević et al., in preparation) will be supplemented with additional material. In the descriptive component, we will first address an issue specific to Slovenian linguistics, i.e., shortcomings in the traditional descriptions of Slovenian. In doing so we will establish (i) which items treated as morphemes in traditional literature should be further decomposed and (ii) which affixes treated as separate (as cases of homonymy) in the traditional literature can be reanalyzed as multifunctional. More precisely we will, focusing primarily on suffixes, determine and account for affixes that exhibit (a) multifunctionality within a category, (b) multifunctionality between categories, and (c) maximal multifunctionality (i.e., affix can used between categories and inflection). The central component of the project is, however, theoretical. To formulate a unified account of multifunctional affixes, Distributed Morphology will be adopted as a starting point to focus on both the multifunctional affixes that can be observed in Slovenian. At the same time, we will consider the prosodic system of Slovenian which reflects differences in morphosyntactic structure.

These components serve towards a larger goal of the project – to build a unified model that will explain what type of elements multifunctional affixes are (the working hypothesis is that they are transitive roots), where they are merged and how they are categorized. By addressing these questions, the project will contribute towards resolving several open issues in the broader field of syntax-centric approaches to morphology (along with an account of multifunctionality, the project will also offer insight into the nature of roots - how they are categorized, whether they can project, whether they have selection markers, etc.). At the same time, the project will allow for a comparison of different theoretical approaches based on how well they can explain the central phenomenon and will help fill any gaps in theory related to multifunctionality.

Project group:

Petra Mišmaš (PI) – Univerza v Novi Gorici (sicris) (2023-)
Franc Marušič – Univerza v Novi Gorici (sicris) (2023-)
Rok Žaucer – Univerza v Novi Gorici (sicris) (2023-)
Guy Tabachnick – Univerza v Novi Gorici (sicris) (2024-2025)
Madeleine Butschety – Univerza v Novi Gorici (sicris) (2024-2025)
Olga Šolaja – Univerza v Novi Gorici (sicris) (2025)

Project group at U. of Graz:

Marko Simonović (PI) (2023-)
Boban Arsenijević (2023-)
Stefan Milosavljević (2024-)

Duration, type, size, funding:

Project duration: 1.5.2023–30.4.2026
Project type: standard basic research project; category B
Partner institution: U. of Graz
Funding agency: Javna agencija za raziskovalno dejavnost Republike Slovenije. For U. of Graz: Austrian Science Fund.
Size: 2481 effective hours per year (UNG)
Project code: J6-4614

Project in Sicris database: Povezava/Link

Phases of the project:

The project is divided into 4 phases (or components). Researchers from both universities participate in all of them.

1. The empirical component of the project (first 14 months, with additional annotations up to the 27th month of the project). Within this component, data will be collected that will serve to fulfill the descriptive and theoretical component.
2. Descriptive component of the project (from month 8 to the 24). Within this component, the project will first address the shortcomings in the traditional description of Slovenian morphology. Specifically, we will determine (i) which elements, traditionally treated as morphemes, should be further decomposed and (ii) which affixes, which are treated as individual morphemes, should be treated as multifunctional (within categories and between categories).
3. Theoretical component (from month 15 to the 34). Within this component, the project will propose a unified treatment of multifunctional morphemes and address broader questions, such as, for example, an adequate analysis of phonologically empty affixes and whether stress can be used as a diagnostic for structure.
4. Project management (entire duration of the project) and dissemination (from the 4th month to the end of the project).

Papers (for the UNG team):

Simonović, Marko and Petra Mišmaš. 2023. The Interaction Between Theme Vowels and Secondary Imperfectives in Slovenian: The Curious Case of ava and eva. Journal of Slavic Linguistics 31. FASL 30 issue. 1-21.  Povezava/Link

Talks (for the UNG team)

Petra Mišmaš.  Multifunctionality in Slovenian Morphology. Slavic Linguistics Webinars. University of Verona, Italy. January 25, 2024.  

Petra Mišmaš. Večfunkcijski morfemi in slovenščina. Philoslavica 2023.  11. Simpozij mladih slavistov.  Nova Gorica. 1. december 2023. 

Marko Simonović and Petra Mišmaš. 2023. Končnice pod drobnogledom dvojine – vsi dvojinski a-ji. Škrabčevi dnevi 13. Nova Gorica.  20. oktober 2023. 

Marko Simonović and Petra Mišmaš. 2023. Predictably Peculiar: Base Modifications in Slovenian Deverbal Nominalisations. Sinfonija 16. Brno, Czech Republic. September 21-23, 2023. 

Petra Mišmaš and Marko Simonović. 2023. Ov to the rescue. 18th Annual Meeting of the Slavic Linguistics Society (SLS-18). Bratislava, Slovakia, August 24-26 2023.

Petra Mišmaš. We need to talk about multifunctionality. Dokuz Eylül University. Izmir, Turkey (via Zoom).  April 17, 2023. 

Project home page:

Povezava/Link (see also for output)