LrFG Analysis of Turkish Suspended Affixation in Nonverbal Coordination

Abstract

Suspended affixation (SA) is a morphosyntactic phenomenon where an affix marked on an edgemost coordinand takes scope over the whole coordinate structure. Typically found in Transeurasian languages, SA is especially pronounced in Turkish, where it is subject to complex morphosyntactic constraints. The previous literature on Turkish SA asserts that it is only compatible with the inflectional domain. However, empirical evidence contrary to this claim has started to emerge from corpus-oriented research. In this regard,
two possible LFG-related analyses are considered: a standard LFG analysis and the lexical sharing analysis proposed by Broadwell (2008). The present work concludes that neither solution provides an explanatory account nor a comprehensive empirical coverage. Therefore, a novel analysis is developed within the emerging framework of Lexical-Realizational Functional Grammar (LrFG). The resulting analysis not only correctly predicts which suffix can be subject to suspension but also provides a morphosyntactic explanation
as to why a Turkish suffix is (in)compatible with SA.