2025 Danil Alekseev and Anastasia Podgornaia. Verb focus in Ossetic: an L(r)FG approach. In Miriam Butt, Jamie Y. Findlay and Ida Toivonen, eds., Proceedings of the LFG25 Conference. Konstanz: PubliKon. 1–18.

Abstract. We propose an LFG treatment of the verb focus construction (which consists of a participle and a light verb) in Ossetic and model the complementary distribution of this construction and focalized complex predicates. We build on the analysis of the Ossetic clause presented by Belyaev (2022) enriching the rule for the focus position in the verbal complex and supplying i-structure annotations. We also sketch an LrFG analysis to account for the placement of preverbs in complex predicates.

Direct links:
1. https://lrfg.online/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Alekseev-Podgornaia-LFG2025-Paper.pdf
2. https://lfg-proceedings.org/lfg/index.php/main/article/view/77/63

2025 Frances Dowle and Ash Asudeh. Categories don’t take precedence: Evidence from Welsh. In Miriam Butt, Jamie Y. Findlay and Ida Toivonen, eds., Proceedings of the LFG25 Conference. Konstanz: PubliKon. 132–154.

Abstract. The morphological component of an L_RFG grammar is responsible for selecting the word forms (Vocabulary Items, or VIs) which express a given sentence. VIs may realize only a subset of the information in a sentence, but MostInformative_f (MI_f) and MostInformative_c (MI_c), which evaluate the f- and c-structure information a VI realizes (respectively), ensure that sentences are expressed using the fewest VIs that realize the most information possible. Welsh has positive, negative and neutral forms of the copula in the present and imperfect paradigms which compete to realize copula-containing structures. The Welsh data regarding which form is selected in different contexts is used to show two important conclusions: (1) that constraining equations have a different status to defining equations in VIs, the former not contributing to the evaluation of MI_f, and (2) that MI_f outranks MI_c when the two metrics return different VIs according to their evaluation.

Direct links:
1. https://lrfg.online/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Dowle-Asudeh-LFG2025-Paper.pdf
2. https://lfg-proceedings.org/lfg/index.php/main/article/view/72/69

2025 Oleg Belyaev, Danil Alekseev, Ash Asudeh, Bronwyn Bjorkman, Frances Dowle, Nadeem Siddiqi, Lisa Sullivan. Ossetic nominal inflection: Between morphology and syntax. In Miriam Butt, Jamie Y. Findlay and Ida Toivonen, eds., Proceedings of the LFG25 Conference. Konstanz: PubliKon. 63–85.

Abstract. Ossetic, an Iranian language spoken in the Caucasus, has a system of eight cases that are mostly formed in an agglutinating fashion, with the possibility of suspended affixation. This system has a number of additional unconventional features, including inflectional irregularities in pronouns, complex stem allomorphy and syncretism patterns and the use of oblique forms as nonfinal conjuncts. In this paper, we review prior accounts of Ossetic case inflection and propose a novel LrFG analysis that we claim allows capturing the relevant facts in a more regular and straighforward manner.

Direct links:
1. https://lrfg.online/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Belyaev-et-al-LFG2025-Paper.pdf
2. https://lfg-proceedings.org/lfg/index.php/main/article/view/74/66

The first published version of our work on Latin declension, presented at LFG 2024, is available at lrfg.online on the papers page.

Fusional morphology, metasyncretism, and secondary exponence: A morphemic, realizational approach to Latin declension

Abstract: Using Latin as a case study, we show that Lexical-Realizational Functional Grammar (a union between a morpheme-based realizational morphology and the nonderivational, constraint-based syntactic framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar) is able to offer insights into two fundamentally important morphological phenomena. The first of these is metasyncretism, which is of particular interest because it is a (putative) paradigmatic effect, yet LrFG does not have paradigms as theoretical objects. Syncretism is captured via cascading macros, such that a macro for one case value may also call another macro with a different case value, leading to case containment which models a feature hierarchy. We also use the same approach for gender and number. Metasyncretism is handled through a single vocabulary item mapping to a disjunction of two or more possible exponents. The second phenomenon of interest is secondary exponence (or morphological conditioning). This is handled through the addition of constraints to the (relevant) vocabulary items corresponding to their conditioning environments.

Direct links:
1. https://lrfg.online/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Asudeh-et-al-LFG2024-Paper-1.pdf
2. https://lfg-proceedings.org/lfg/index.php/main/article/view/49

The story of er, the first published version of our work on English more/-er and most/-est, presented at LFG 2024, is available at lrfg.online on the papers page.

Abstract: The English comparative -er is a particular challenge for contemporary morphological analysis. The comparative and superlative in English are in an ABB suppletion relationship, which strongly suggests a containment relationship. This in turn suggests that -er and -est are in competition with each other. This is a challenge for both morphemic and word-based models of morphology. Word-based models are particularly challenged by competition between morphological and periphrastic exponence. Morphemic models, like LrFG (the model assumed here), have to deal with complex constraints on the affixal form. More and -er are in (mostly) complementary distribution, suggesting that they are allomorphs. The blocking of -er is not only triggered by phonology, but also by syntactic triggers and semantic triggers. Sometimes pure complementarity fails and both more and -er are licit (I am even madder and I am even more mad), but it does so in predictable ways (in contrast to true optionality). The net of all these properties is that the appearance of -er is the result of a complex competition involving two competitors (more and -er) and phonological, semantic, and syntactic conditions restricting their distributions.

Direct links:
1. https://lrfg.online/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Asudeh-et-al-LFG2024-Paper-1.pdf
2. https://lfg-proceedings.org/lfg/index.php/main/article/view/47

The handout for our MoMOT 2024 presentation, Ingush clause chaining as a syntactic phenomenon, is available at lrfg.online on the presentations page.

Direct link: https://lrfg.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Asudeh-et-al-2024-MOMOT24.pdf

The handout for our LFG 2024 presentation, Fusional morphology, metasyncretism, and secondary exponence: A morphemic, realizational approach to Latin declension, is available at lrfg.online on the presentations page.

Direct link: https://lrfg.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Asudeh-et-al-LFG-2024.pdf

The handout for our LFG24 presentation, The story of er, is available at lrfg.online on the presentations page. 

Direct link: https://lrfg.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Asudeh-Siddiqi-LFG-2024.pdf

The handout for our CLA 2024 presentation, Metasyncretism and secondary exponence in LrFG, is available at lrfg.online on the presentations page.

Direct link: https://lrfg.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Asudeh-et-al-CLA-2024.pdf

There’s a new LrFG paper on morphosemantics, Morphological exponence and morphosemantics. It is available here: https://lrfg.online/papers/. Comments welcome!