The Contention
The contention that "no language has an absolute analytic, agglutinating, inflecting, or incorporating morphological system" suggests that no language is purely one type of morphological system. Instead, languages exhibit a range of features that overlap with different systems.
Morphological Systems
Morphological systems refer to the way languages form words and express grammatical information through the manipulation of morphemes. The four main morphological systems are:
- Analytic: Morphemes are separate words or free morphemes that retain their individual meaning and are combined to form complex words (e.g., English, Chinese).
- Agglutinating: Morphemes are bound morphemes that are added to the end of a root word and each morpheme has a specific meaning (e.g., Turkish, Finnish).
- Inflecting: Morphemes are attached to a root word, but they can change the form of the root word and can express multiple grammatical meanings (e.g., Latin, Spanish).
- Incorporating: Morphemes are incorporated into the root word and can represent entire phrases or clauses (e.g., Inuktitut, Nahuatl).
Evidence
Analytic
- English: While English is primarily analytic, it does have some inflectional features, such as the plural marker "-s" and the possessive marker "'s."
- Chinese: Chinese is highly analytic, but it has a few agglutinative features, such as the use of reduplication to express intensity.
Agglutinating
- Turkish: Turkish is largely agglutinating, but it also has some analytic features, such as the use of postpositions to express spatial relationships.
- Finnish: Finnish is a highly agglutinating language, but it also has some inflectional features, such as vowel harmony.
Inflecting
- Latin: Latin is a highly inflecting language, but it also has some agglutinative features, such as the use of suffixes to form participles.
- Spanish: Spanish is primarily inflecting, but it exhibits some analytic features, such as the use of prepositions to express grammatical relationships.
Incorporating
- Inuktitut: Inuktitut is a highly incorporating language, but it can also use analytic constructions in certain contexts.
- Nahuatl: Nahuatl is primarily incorporating, but it also has some inflectional features, such as suffixes to mark tense and mood.
Conclusion
The evidence suggests that no language has an absolute morphological system. Instead, languages exhibit a continuum of features that may overlap with different systems. While some languages may exhibit predominantly one type of morphology, they often incorporate elements of other systems to create a complex and versatile grammatical structure.