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LECTURE: SCHEMAS - INHERITANCE HIERARCHIES John D. Alderete, Linguistics 323, Simon Fraser University Goals: the primary aim of this lecture is to introduce the notion of an inheritance hierarchy and ask how it can be formalized (i.e., word syntax or schemas). Keywords: inheritance hierarchy, taxonomic hierarchy, microclass, macroclass, default specification, rule schemas Reading: Understanding Morphology 8.4 MODERN GREEK NOUN INFLECTION CLASSES

os-declension as-declension us-declension NOM SG nomos pateras papus ACC nomo patera papu GEN nomu patera papu NOM PL nomi pateres papuđes ACC nomus pateres papuđes GEN nomon pateron papuđon ‘law (masc.)’ ‘father (masc.)’ ‘grandfather (masc.)’

a-declension i1-declension i2-declension u-declension NOM SG imera texni poli maimu ACC imera texni poli maimu GEN imeras texnis poleos maimus NOM PL imeres texnes poles maimuđes ACC imeres texnes poles maimuđes GEN imeron texnon poleon maimuđon ‘day (fem.)’ ‘art, skill (fem.)’ ‘town (fem.)’ ‘monkey (fem.)’

Questions: which declension classes are most similar, which are most distinct? Are there generalizations about masculine classes, as opposed to feminine classes? Are there attributes that all declensions share?

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Definition: • inheritance, in a taxonomic hierarchy of increasingly general nodes, a lower node may inherit

information from a higher node Conventions: X = any sequence of Cs and Vs, or zero; V = a vowel, C = a consonant Task: reproduce the taxonomic hierarchy for Modern Greek in UM 7.3 Definitions: microclasses, bottom-most node representing the inflection classes macroclasses, topmost node in the hierarchy that represents the most general structures of an inflectional system Question: does the inheritance hierarchy allow for more direct statements of observations characterizing similarities and differences among classes? If so, how?

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SYNTAX OR SCHEMAS? Definition: rule schema: a schema of schemas that encodes the macroclass of a hierarchy paradigm rule: Task: create a rule schema for the inheritance hierarchy for Modern Greek Question: is there a way of capture the generalizations in inheritance hierarchies with diacritic features in word syntax approaches?

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OLD ENGLISH REVISITED

Task: create an inheritance hierarchy for Old English based on the inflection classes above. N.b.: the gender specifications are given for words here, not declension classes as a whole, so be careful about generalizations re: gender (as in Greek).