ABSTRACT
This chapter deals the nature of morphology and its position within the architecture of grammar: syntax and phonology. While this issue is by now a widely studied one, it examines how it is illuminated by evidence furnished from word-related phenomena particular to Spanish, like stem alternations or the position of the head in compounds. The chapter presents the major theories of morphology and classifies according to whether they commit to the idea of morphology as a grammatical component independent of syntax. It then examines two phenomena showcasing the tension between syntactically vs morphologically oriented theories and between morphological vs phonological approaches. Traditional studies in Spanish morphology are, either explicitly or implicitly, of the Autonomous-Morphology type. For instance, Alemany Bolufer’s pioneering treaty on derivation and compounding just takes it for granted that the units and processes leading to the creation of new lexemes are to be described in isolation, as a system in itself.
