Criticisms of The Righthand Head Rule
The righthand head rule is taken to be a universal principle of morphology, but has been subject to much severe criticism. The main point of criticism is that it is empirically insufficient because it ignores numerous cases where the head does not appear in the righthand position (PREP=preposition, NEG=negation):
- un-V + horseN = unhorseV
- en-V + ableADJ = enableV
- passerN + byPREP = passer-byN
- dis-V NEG + chargeV = dischargeV NEG
- unADJ NEG + happyADJ = unhappyADJ NEG
Another main point of criticism is that the righthand head rule is too Eurocentric, or even Anglocentric, taking into consideration only morphological processes typical of European languages (mainly English) and ignoring processes from languages all over the world.
Many linguists reject the righthand head rule as being too idealizing and empirically inadequate.
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