Verbose exponence: Integrating the typologies of multiple and distributed exponence

Abstract

Multiple exponence is the multiple marking of the same feature or category within a single word. Distributed exponence is the occurrence of morphological structure such that providing a precise interpretation of a category can only be determined after considering more than one morphological formative. I propose the term verbose exponence to capture the common ground between these phenomena, i.e. all situations involving multiple morphological formatives sensitive to some common information. From this definition, a typology based on informational overlap emerges with types of verbose exponence corresponding to types of set interactions. The typology incorporates known related phenomena, such as overlapping exponence, while providing a sophisticated framework for describing previously unnamed phenomena. This typology is naturally cast in set-theoretic terms and formal definitions are provided for all assumptions and points in the typology. Such an approach provides precise articulations of the typological space but also of morphological redundancy, a property often associated with multiple exponence.