Bracketing paradox
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In linguistic morphology, the term bracketing paradox is used to describe the phenomenon in some languages where a morphologically complex word could conceivably be analyzed, or bracketed, in two or more incompatible ways. It may be the case that only one of the possible bracketings is likely to be understood by a native listener, in which case the paradox is not truly paradoxical to the listener, only to the linguist, or it may be the case that there exists some ambiguity for the listener as well.
Bracketing paradoxes occur in English, and are perhaps best demonstrated by example. Consider compound words that are a name for a professional of a particular discipline, preceded by a modifier that narrows that discipline: nuclear physicist, historical linguist, political scientist, etc.
Taking nuclear physicist as an example, we see that there are at least two reasonable ways that the compound word can be bracketed (ignoring the fact that nuclear itself is morphologically complex):
- [[nuclear][[physic(s)][-ist]]] - one who studies physics, and who happens also to be nuclear
- [[[nuclear][physic(s)]][-ist]] - one who studies nuclear physics, a subfield of physics that deals with nuclear phenomena
What is interesting to many morphologists about this type of bracketing paradox in English is that the correct bracketing 2 (correct in the sense that this is the way that a native speaker would understand it) does not follow the usual bracketing pattern 1 for most compound words in English.
Another well known example of a bracketing paradox in English is an apparent exception to the normal morphophonological rules for adding the comparative suffix -er to an adjective. Normally, the suffix may be attached only to monosyllabic adjectives and a small class of bisyllabic adjectives with the primary and only stress on the first syllable. Thus, for example, old-er and grumpi-er are words, but *correct-er and *restrictiv-er are not. An apparent exception to this rule is adjectives that begin with the prefix un-. Consider the word unhappier. One could analyze this word as the prefix un- added to the adjective happier:
- [[un-][[happi][-er]]]
but this would mean "not more happy", when the word really means "more not happy". A semantically correct bracketing:
- [[[un-][happi]][-er]]
however violates the morphophonological rules for the suffix -er. Phenomena such as this present a problem to the theory of level ordering.
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