ABSTRACT
One of the most debated problems of English morphology is that of stacking restrictions amongst derivational affixes. Of the many potential combinations of affixes, only a very small proportion are actually attested. Many attempts to account for apparent restrictions on affix ordering have invoked some form of the Affix-Ordering Generalization (Siegel 1979). The basic claim of the Affix-Ordering Generalization is that affixes can be divided into two sets – level 1 affixes, and level 2 affixes. Level 1 affixation occurs prior to level 2 affixation, and so no level 1 affix can attach outside of any level 2 affix (hence *-ness-ic, *-less-ity, etc.).
