Rochelle Lieber
Encyclopedia
Rochelle Lieber is Professor of English
at the University of New Hampshire
. She is a linguist known for her work in morphology
, the syntax
-morphology interface, and morphology and lexical semantics
.
After receiving an A.B. in anthropology from Vassar
(1976), Lieber studied linguistics at MIT, receiving her Ph.D. in 1980. Her dissertation, On the Organization of the Lexicon, was written under the direction of Morris Halle
. It was in this work that she proposed "feature percolation," a mechanism by which the properties of lexical item
s are inherited by their larger constituent structures, and which she articulates more fully in Lieber 1992 (77ff). Syntacticians and morphologists have made use of the concept of feature percolation in many different ways since Lieber's first proposal.
Lieber is the author of Deconstructing Morphology: Word Formation in Syntactic Theory (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1992), an influential attempt to reduce morphology to the syntactic principles of government and binding theory
. In Deconstructing Morphology, Lieber makes two statements that are often quoted: "no one has yet succeeded in deriving the properties of words and the properties of sentences from the same principles of grammar," and "the conceptually simplest possible theory would then be the one in which all morphology is done as a part of syntax" (Lieber 1992: 21).
Lieber's recent monograph, Morphology and Lexical Semantics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), is the first attempt to develop a theory of the lexical semantics of derivation and compounding.
Professor Lieber has taught at the University of New Hampshire since 1981. She received the University of New Hampshire Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1991. In addition to several monographs, she is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on morphology. She is currently the co-editor in chief of Blackwell's Language and Linguistics Compass.
English studies
English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
at the University of New Hampshire
University of New Hampshire
The University of New Hampshire is a public university in the University System of New Hampshire , United States. The main campus is in Durham, New Hampshire. An additional campus is located in Manchester. With over 15,000 students, UNH is the largest university in New Hampshire. The university is...
. She is a linguist known for her work in morphology
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
, the syntax
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
-morphology interface, and morphology and lexical semantics
Lexical semantics
Lexical semantics is a subfield of linguistic semantics. It is the study of how and what the words of a language denote . Words may either be taken to denote things in the world, or concepts, depending on the particular approach to lexical semantics.The units of meaning in lexical semantics are...
.
After receiving an A.B. in anthropology from Vassar
Vassar College
Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...
(1976), Lieber studied linguistics at MIT, receiving her Ph.D. in 1980. Her dissertation, On the Organization of the Lexicon, was written under the direction of Morris Halle
Morris Halle
Morris Halle , is a Latvian-American Jewish linguist and an Institute Professor and professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
. It was in this work that she proposed "feature percolation," a mechanism by which the properties of lexical item
Lexical item
A Lexical item is a single word or chain of words that forms the basic elements of a language's lexicon . Examples are "cat", "traffic light", "take care of", "by-the-way", and "it's raining cats and dogs"...
s are inherited by their larger constituent structures, and which she articulates more fully in Lieber 1992 (77ff). Syntacticians and morphologists have made use of the concept of feature percolation in many different ways since Lieber's first proposal.
Lieber is the author of Deconstructing Morphology: Word Formation in Syntactic Theory (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1992), an influential attempt to reduce morphology to the syntactic principles of government and binding theory
Government and binding theory
Government and binding is a theory of syntax and a phrase structure grammar in the tradition of transformational grammar developed principally by Noam Chomsky in the 1980s...
. In Deconstructing Morphology, Lieber makes two statements that are often quoted: "no one has yet succeeded in deriving the properties of words and the properties of sentences from the same principles of grammar," and "the conceptually simplest possible theory would then be the one in which all morphology is done as a part of syntax" (Lieber 1992: 21).
Lieber's recent monograph, Morphology and Lexical Semantics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), is the first attempt to develop a theory of the lexical semantics of derivation and compounding.
Professor Lieber has taught at the University of New Hampshire since 1981. She received the University of New Hampshire Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1991. In addition to several monographs, she is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on morphology. She is currently the co-editor in chief of Blackwell's Language and Linguistics Compass.
Books
- Lieber, R. & P. Štekauer, Eds. 2009. Handbook of Compounding. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199219872
- Štekauer, P. & R. Lieber, Eds. 2005. Handbook of word-formation. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. ISBN 1-402-03597-7
- Lieber, R. 2004. Morphology and lexical semantics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-83171-7
- Lieber, R. 1992. Deconstructing morphology : Word formation in syntactic theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-48063-1
- Lieber, R. 1990. On the organization of the lexicon. Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics. New York: Garland. ISBN 0824018907
- Lieber, R. 1987. An integrated theory of autosegmental processes. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0887065090