This book puts together contributions of linguists and psycholinguists whose main interest here is the representation of Semitic words in the mental lexicon of Semitic language speakers. The central topic of the book confronts two views about the morphology of Semitic words. The point of the argument is: Should we see Semitic words’ morphology as “root-based” or “word-based?” The proponents of the root-based approach, present empirical evidence demonstrating that Semitic language speakers are sensitive to the root and the template as the two basic elements (bound morphemes) of Semitic words. Those supporting the word-based approach, present arguments to the effect that Semitic word formation is not based on the merging of roots and templates, but that Semitic words are comprised of word stems and affixes like we find in Indo-European languages. The variety of evidence and arguments for each claim should force the interested readers to reconsider their views on Semitic morphology.

Table of contents

1. Semitic languages: Are they really root-based? Joseph Shimron 1–28 2. Semitic verb structure within a universal perspective Outi Bat-El 29–59 3. The verbal morphology of Maltese Robert D. Hoberman and Mark Aronoff 61–78 4. The formation of Ethiopian Semitic internal reduplication Sharon Rose 79–97 5. The role of the imperfective template in Arabic morphology Elabbas Benmamoun 99–114 6. Arabic derivational ablaut, processing strategies, and consonantal “roots” Jeffrey G. Heath 115–129 7. The ‘roots’ of denominative Hebrew verbs Shmuel Bolozky 131–146 8. Opacity in Hebrew word morphology Ora (Rodrigue) Schwarzwald 147–163 9. Lexical organization and lexical access in a non-concatenated morphology Avital Deutsch and Ram Frost 165–186 10. When degree of semantic similarity influences morphological processing Laurie Beth Feldman and Michal Raveh 187–200 11. What is a root? Evidence from the obligatory contour principle Iris Berent and Joseph Shimron 201–222 12. Root-morpheme processing during word recognition in Hebrew speakers across the adult life span Mira Goral and Loraine K. Obler 223–242 13. Children’s lexical innovations: Developmental perspectives on Hebrew verb structure Ruth A. Berman 243–291 14. A developmental perspective on root perception in Hebrew and Palestinian Arabic Dorit Ravid 293–319 15. Computing argument structure: The early grammar Hagit Borer 321–362 16. ‘Empty’ subjects in Hebrew: A developmental perspective Yonata Levy and Anne Vainikka 363–384 Index of names 385–388 Index of subjects 389–392