A Categorial Analysis of Bracketing Paradoxes in English
In this paper I present a formal account of "bracketing paradoxes" in morphology under a categorial framework. In this kind of system, Catego­ ry Raising (CR) plays an important role in removing the "mismatches" between phonology and semantics. However, no previous approach was successful in properly restricting the application of CR. So, I propose two constraints for this purpose: a formal restriction and a lexical restriction. The former says that CR applies only when the arrangement of the mor­ phemes in a word fits with a specified format. The latter, which is imposed by the lexicon, is an auxiliary constraint to the first restriction. We will see that this system can also provide a good account of bracketing para­ doxes in compounds.