Chapter 14: A theoretical synopsis and two further issues

Chapter 14 (‘A theoretical synopsis and two further issues’) presents a summary of the formalization proposed for the paradigm-linkage theory over the course of Chapters 7–13, then addresses two issues pertinent to its formalization and application.  The first of these concerns the possibility of paring down the paradigm-linkage theory by adopting a purely abstractive approach to inflectional exponence (Blevins 2006); adopting such an approach would seem to open the possibility of eliminating form paradigms from the paradigm-linkage architecture, but as I show, there are good reasons not to pursue this strategy.  The second issue relates to the relevant of paradigm linkage to morphological change; as I show, the proposed theoretical architecture sheds important light on the sometimes conflicting pressures that affect the evolution of inflectional systems.