Editing Distributed morphology (section)

===Morphological merger===

Morphological Merger is generalized as follows in Marantz 1988: 261:

'''Morphological Merger:'''

''At any level of syntactic analysis (d-structure, s-structure, phonological structure), a relation between X and Y may be replaced by (expressed by) the affixation of the lexical head of X to the lexical head of Y.''<ref>Marantz, Alec. "Clitics, morphological merger, and the mapping to phonological structure." Theoretical morphology (1988): 253–270.</ref>

Two syntactic nodes can undergo Morphological Merger subject to morphophonological well-formedness conditions.<ref name=McGinnis/>

====Many-to-one mapping between syntax and morphology: feature fusion====

Two nodes that have undergone Morphological Merger or that have been adjoined through syntactic head movement can undergo Fusion, yielding one single node for Vocabulary insertion.<ref name=McGinnis/> Many-to-one relation where two syntactic terminals are realized as a single exponent ([[portmanteau]]).<ref>{{cite web|last1=Nevins|first1=Andrew|title=Lectures on Postsyntactic Morphology|url=http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/002587|website=LingBuzz|access-date=15 July 2015}}</ref>

An example can be found in [[Swahili language|Swahili]], which has separate exponents for subject agreement (e.g., 1st plural ''tu-'') and negation (''ha-''):

{{interlinear|indent=3
|'''tu-''' ta- pend-a kiswahili
|'''we-''' will- love Swahili
|}}

{{interlinear|indent=3
|'''ha-''' '''tu-''' ta- pend-a kiswahili
|'''NEG-''' '''we-''' will- love Swahili
|}}

However, 1st person singular exponent ''ni-'' and negation ''ha-'' undergo fusion and realized as ''si-'':

{{interlinear|indent=3
|'''*ha-''' '''ni-''' ta pend-a kiswahili
|'''NEG-''' '''I-''' will- love Swahili
|}}

{{interlinear|indent=3
|'''si-''' ta- pend-a Kiswahili
|'''NEG.I-''' will- love Swaihili
|}}

An alternative analysis of ''si-'' exponent says that there is no fusion but rather context sensitive allomorphy:

{{interlinear|indent=3
|'''si-''' '''Ø''' ta- pend-a Kiswahili
|'''NEG-''' '''I-''' will- love Swaihili
|}}