The volume is dedicated to the German linguist Wolfgang Ullrich "Gustav" Wurzel (1940-2001), who has influenced linguistic thought in his work on paradigm-based morphology. All contributors to the volume deal with Wurzel’s work and thinking, who in his theoretical writings focused on the concepts of naturalness, markedness and complexity in human language. The authors discuss diachronic and typological aspects of morphology, i.e. the nature of paradigms, the rise and fall of inflectional morphology, and the development and systems of gender marking, also in regard to the interface with phonology and syntax.

From the contents:

Gustav’s choice. An appraisal of Wolfgang Ullrich Wurzel’s life, personality and linguistic work: Bernhard Hurch and Andreas Bittner - Suppletion. Typology, markedness, complexity: Greville G. Corbett - Reciprocal complementary paradigm structure conditions: Wolfgang U. Dressler - Inflectional morphology and productivity. Considering qualitative and quantitative approaches: Livio Gaeta - Genericity as a principle of paradigm economy. The case of German wer ‘who’: Rüdiger Harnisch - Naturalness and the life cycle of language change: Gregory K. Iverson and Joseph C. Salmons - The Old High German weak preterite: Paul Kiparsky - Aspects of Old and Modern French inflectional morphology. A Wurzelian analysis: Jurgen Klausenburger - Case syncretism in German feminines. Typological, functional and structural aspects: Manfred Krifka - Realization-based morphosyntax. The German genitive: Andrew Spencer - Inflectional morphology in a creole. A report on Chabacano (Philippine Spanish Creole): Patrick O. Steinkrüger - Gender control - lexical or conceptual?: David A. Zubin and Klaus-Michael Köpcke