GLOSS and the Department of Linguistics Colloquium
November 14 at 3pm in 100 Agate Hall
Cynthia Vakareliyska
Department of Linguistics
University of Oregon
Morphological Issues in Compiling a Dictionary of Modern Lithuanian Word Roots
Linguists who work with modern Lithuanian generally avoid dealing with roots, for a number of
reasons having to do with the morphological structure of the language: these include the
profusion of roots with Ablaut variants (are these separate roots or allomorphs of a basic root
form — and if so, which one is the basic form?); (b) the fuzzy morpheme boundary between
roots and unproductive suffixes; and (c) the tendency of some Ablaut root forms to be associated
with a certain lexical category — although derivational suffixes allow the formation from that
root of lexemes in other lexical categories. This talk is on the methodological challenges that
these and other morphological issues create for the compilation of a Lithuanian-English root
dictionary.