Festschrifts

The conceptualization of FEATURES has remained a central theme in generative approaches to the syntax-morphology interface since the early 1990s. They have played an enhanced role in late-insertion approaches to morphosyntax, in which the establishment of feature-exponence relations is of fundamental importance. In this chapter we review, and critique, the advantages and disadvantages of direct (Nanosyntax) and indirect (Distributed Morphology) approaches to this interface. To illustrate the similarities and differences, we demonstrate how nominal suffixes are realized in varieties of Norwegian (including the heritage variant, North American Norwegian, NAmNo). We show that while both direct and indirect approaches to the syntax-morphology interface are capable of modeling the alternations observed in Norwegian nominal suffixes, they sometimes do so via different mechanisms, opening the door for future comparative work.