Categorial Morphosyntax: Transparency of the Morphology-Syntax-Semantics Interface

Encapsulation of morphology and syntax as separate domains of representation and processing causes many problems at the interfaces, such as rebracketing, reordering, and tampering with the representations of the information domains. These recomputations usually arise due to mismatches with the semantic bracketing. We propose a lexicalist framework based on Combinatory Categorial Grammar (CCG) that provides flexible constituency, flexible (morpho)syntactic category consistency, and flexible attachment. These mechanisms provide enough expressive power to formulate semantically transparent specifications without the necessity to confine structureforming to word-level or phrase-level operations. For instance, bound morphemes in the lexicon can have phrasal scope or word scope independent of their attachment characteristics but consistent with their semantics. The controls can be attuned in the lexicon to language particular properties. The result is a transparent interface of inflectional morphology, syntax and semantics. We show the application of the framework to Turkish and English.