Inflected and periphrastic features: issues of comparison and modelling

Abstract

This paper discusses the association of periphrastic constructions, that is syntactic constructions that express grammatical meaning usually realised by inflection, with features. The paper argues that the morphosyntactic non-compositionality in periphrasis and in ‘nested periphrases’ can be modeled by associating periphrastic constructions with feature values that are different from those appropriate for their component parts. The paper then explores the consequences such modeling would have on recent formalizations of periphrasis and points out that this approach would change how we view some ordering problems, as well as recursion within periphrasis. Taking this alternative view, arguably, also reflects the dual nature of periphrases as expressions of a syntactic nature that occupy cells in a paradigm and gain their meaning from their position in a range of paradigmatic oppositions.