The structure of inflected Urdu nominals: insights from Distributed Morphology

Abstract

This study investigates the structure of inflected Urdu nominals within the theoretical framework of Distributed Morphology (DM). The primary objective is to explore how DM accounts for various inflectional patterns in Urdu nominals, emphasizing key principles such as the Late Insertion hypothesis and syntax as a single generative module. Employing a descriptive approach within a qualitative research paradigm, the study utilizes purposive sampling to analyze the morphological patterns and structure of complex Urdu nominals. Following the core assumptions of DM, this research examines morphosyntactic operations involved in inflectional processes that shape the grammatical form of complex words. It further considers post-syntactic operations crucial for pronunciation within the PF and LF components of DM. The findings provide an economical and well-substantiated account of word formation processes, reinforcing the syntax-driven nature of DM. These findings contribute to linguistic economy by demonstrating how the principles of DM can be effectively adapted. Additionally, insights from this study support computational modeling, aiding in the advancement of Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools for Urdu and similar languages. This has significant implications for machine translation, information retrieval, and text generation systems, enhancing computational linguistics applications.

Keywords

• Distributed morphology
• formal features
• morphological operations
• phi- features Urdu complex nominals
• Communication Research Methods
• Writing & Composition