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| In [[Morphology (linguistics)|linguistic morphology]], the term '''bracketing paradox''' refers to morphologically complex [[word]]s which apparently have more than one incompatible analysis, or ''[[Bracketing (linguistics)|bracketing]]'', simultaneously.
| | Irwin Butts is what my spouse loves to call me though I don't really like becoming known as like that. One of [http://203.250.78.160/zbxe/?document_srl=817810&mid=gallery over the counter std test] issues she loves most is to read comics and she'll be beginning something else alongside with it. Puerto Rico is where he's usually been residing but she needs to transfer because of her family members. Bookkeeping is my profession. |
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| One type of a bracketing paradox found in [[English language|English]] is exemplified by words like ''unhappier'' or ''uneasier''.<ref>Pesetsky, D. 1985. "Morphology and logical form." ''Linguistic Inquiry'' 16:193-246.</ref> The synthetic [[comparative]] [[suffix]] ''-er'' generally occurs with monosyllabic [[adjective]]s and a small class of disyllabic adjectives with the primary (and only) [[Stress (phonology)|stress]] on the first syllable. Other adjectives take the analytic comparative ''more''. Thus, we have ''older'' and ''grumpier'', but ''more correct'' and ''more restrictive''. This suggests that a word like ''uneasier'' must be formed by combining the suffix ''er'' with the adjective ''easy'', since ''uneasy'' is a three syllable word: | |
| :<math>\Big[\mbox{un-}\Big] \Big[ \big[\mbox{easi}\big] \big[\mbox{-er}\big] \Big]</math>
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| However, ''uneasier'' means "more uneasy", not "more difficult". Thus, from a [[Meaning (linguistics)|semantic]] perspective, ''uneasier'' must be a combination of ''er'' with the adjective ''uneasy'':
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| :<math>\Big [ \big[\mbox{un-}\big] \big[\mbox{easi}\big] \Big ] \Big[\mbox{-er}\Big] </math>
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| however violates the morphophonological rules for the suffix ''-er''. Phenomena such as this have been argued to represent a mismatch between different levels of grammatical structure.<ref>Sproat, R. 1988. "Bracketing paradoxes, cliticization, and other topics: The mapping between syntactic and phonological structure." In Everaert et al. (eds), ''Morphology and Modularity.'' Amsterdam: North-Holland.</ref>
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| Another type of [[English language|English]] bracketing paradox is found in [[compound word]]s that are a name for a professional of a particular discipline, preceded by a modifier that narrows that discipline: ''nuclear physicist'', ''historical linguist'', ''political scientist'', etc.<ref>Williams, E. 1981. "On the notions 'lexically related' and 'head of a word.'" ''Linguistic Inquiry'' 12:245-274.</ref><ref>Spencer, A. 1988. "Bracketing paradoxes and the English lexicon." ''Language'' 64:663-682.</ref> Taking ''nuclear physicist'' as an example, we see that there are at least two reasonable ways that the compound word can be bracketed (ignoring the fact that ''nuclear'' itself is morphologically complex):
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| #<math> \Big [ \mbox{nuclear} \Big ] \Big [ \big [ \mbox{physic(s)} \big ] \big [\mbox{-ist} \big ] \Big ] </math> - one who studies physics, and who happens also to be nuclear
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| #<math> \Big[ \big [\mbox{nuclear} \big] \big [\mbox{physic(s)} \big] \Big] \Big [\mbox{-ist} \Big] </math> - one who studies nuclear physics, a subfield of physics that deals with nuclear [[Phenomenon|phenomena]]
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| What is interesting to many morphologists about this type of bracketing paradox in English is that the correct bracketing 2 (correct in the sense that this is the way that a native speaker would understand it) does not follow the usual bracketing pattern 1 typical for most compound words in English.
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| == See also ==
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| * [[List of paradoxes]]
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| == References ==
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| {{reflist}}
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| [[Category:Paradoxes]]
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| [[Category:Linguistic morphology]]
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Irwin Butts is what my spouse loves to call me though I don't really like becoming known as like that. One of over the counter std test issues she loves most is to read comics and she'll be beginning something else alongside with it. Puerto Rico is where he's usually been residing but she needs to transfer because of her family members. Bookkeeping is my profession.