Full Description
This volume presents an in-depth study of the so-called irregular Past Tense (sing/sang) and Noun Plural (foot/feet) forms with Internal Vowel Alternation (IVA) in English demonstrating that they possess both a fixed phonological and semantic regularity. The innovative sign-oriented analysis and inductive methodology employed in this study are further supported by additional first language acquisition data, experimental studies and historical evidence. The data culled from multiple linguistic anthologies, dictionaries and thesauri have shown that although the IVA process comprises a relatively small number of nominal and verbal forms in Modern English, IVA, originally, was a prevalent and productive process in Old English, Indo-European and other language families. The results of this empirical study present and introduce a novel classification based on the regular and systematic iconic-phonological and semantic nature of all these diverse IVA processes both nominal and verbal that has been maintained throughout the history of English.
Contents
1. List of figures; 2. List of tables; 3. List of abbreviations; 4. Part One. Introduction; 5. Chapter 1. Introduction; 6. Chapter 2. "Irregular" versus "regular" nominal and Verbal forms in English; 7. Part Two. Background; 8. Chapter 3. Overview of Noun Plural versus Verbal Past Tense inflection in English: Parallel systems following CS-PHB theory; 9. Chapter 4. Historical background of different systems of Noun Plural and Verbal Past Tense inflections; 10. Part Three. The non-irregularity hypotheses; 11. Chapter 5. The non-irregularity hypotheses following sign-oriented theory; 12. Part Four. Phonological non-irregularity hypothesis; 13. Chapter 6. The IVA system of Noun Plurals in Old and Modern English; 14. Chapter 7. The IVA system of Past Tense formation in Old and Modern English; 15. Part Five. Semantic non-irregularity: The common semantic denominator (CSD) hypothesis; 16. Chapter 8. The semantic feature of the nominal IVA system in old and Modern English; 17. Chapter 9. The semantic aspects of the verbal IVA system in Old English; 18. Chapter 10. The semantic aspects of the verbal IVA system in Modern English; 19. Part Six. Further evidence for both hypotheses; 20. Chapter 11. 'Weak' verbs as further evidence for both hypotheses; 21. Chapter 12. Compound verbs as further evidence for both hypotheses; 22. Part Seven. Discussion and conclusions; 23. Appendices; 24. References; 25. Name index; 26. Subject index
