INFERENTIAL-REALIZATIONAL MORPHOLOGY AND AFFIX ORDERING: EVIDENCE FROM THE AGREEMENT PATTERNS OF BASQUE AUXILIARY VERBS

“No aspect of Basque linguistics has received more attention over the years than the morphology of the verb.” (Trask 1981:1) The current study examines the complex morphological agreement patterns found in the Basque auxiliary verb system as a case in point for discussion of theoretical approaches to inflectional morphology. The traditional syntax-driven treatment of these auxiliaries is contrasted with an inferential, morphology-driven analysis within the Paradigm Function Morphology framework. Additionally, a computational implementation of the current analysis using the DATR lexical knowledge representation language is discussed