THE INFLECTION-DERIVATION CONTINUUM AND THE OLD ENGLISH SUFFIXES -A, -E, -O, -U.

This article addresses the question of the continuity between inflection and derivation as posed by the Old English suffixes -a, -e, -o and -u. On the structural side, the morphological analysis that has been carried out focuses on the overlapping of inflectional and derivational phenomena. On the functional side, affixation is analysed in the constituent projection and inflection in the operator projection of the Layered Structure of the Word (LSW), where the derivational affix constitutes a morphological pivot and the inflectional affix a morphological controller. The conclusion is reached that, whereas the LSW allows for a unified treatment of derivation and inflection in the synchronic axis, it requires further attention in the area of inflection as a Word/Complex Word operator. In this line, this article demonstrates that the insertion of gender, number and case operators in the top layer stresses the morphological character of the LSW, while it is more consistent with the grammatical nature of gender in Old English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]