The abstract nature of morpheme types with evidence from contact phenomena

This presentation suggests that recognizing differences at the abstract level in morpheme types offers some explanations for differences in their distribution in language contact phenomena. The level at which morpheme types are elected may affect their distribution in surface level constructions; that is, there is a contrast between morphemes that convey more semantic/pragmatic information from those realizing hierarchical structures. Such differences may also lie behind the preferences for selecting one language over another in some structures in some bilingual data. I look especially at codeswitching, but also consider examples from borrowing across languages and discuss briefly mixed languages and creole development. I will be referring to an Asymmetry Principle and the Matrix Language Frame (MLF) model, but more to the 4-M model of morpheme classification. I will present several hypotheses that seem to explain some surface distributions.