Sanskrit nominal stem gradation without morphomes

Abstract

It is proposed that the alternations ā ∼ a and a ∼ Ø in the stem-final syllable of Sanskrit nominals such as rā´jān- ‘king’ and dātār- ‘giver’ are due to rules of shortening and syncope. If so, those alternations provide no support, contrary to claims in the literature, for a framework in which stem alternants are associated with “morphomic indices” by stem-indexing rules and, more generally, no support for a purely morphological level of representation mediating between morphosyntax and morphophonology. To the contrary, it is claimed, postulation of such a level in the Sanskrit case both complicates the grammatical architecture needlessly and obstructs the statement of phonological generalizations.