Stretching, spanning, and linear adjacency in Vocabulary Insertion

摘要

In studying the mechanisms that create portmanteaux, it is often difficult to distinguish structural constituency from linear adjacency. This paper examines the Irish verbal complex, the particular intricacies of which allow us to disentangle linear adjacency from morphosyntactic constituency. We observe that portmanteaux are formed between linearly adjacent nodes, without reference to structural constituency. A theory is developed in which Vocabulary Insertion operates over linearized structures, allowing Insertion of linearly adjacent nodes. This mechanism is termed Stretching.' In this way the characteristic slogan of Distributed Morphology (Halle and Marantz 1993) syntax all the way down is maintained, but the relevant sense of syntax is one in which post-syntactic processing creates complex structures which imperfectly mirror the narrow syntax. Importantly, it is linear adjacency within these post-syntactic structures which regulates patterns of Vocabulary Insertion, not structural adjacency.