Criteriamorphology

Criteriamorphology is a theoretical framework within linguistics that studies how languages encode evaluative and classificatory criteria in their morphological systems. The central claim is that certain affixes, inflectional patterns, reduplication, or tone can mark the criteria by which a referent or event is judged, such as usefulness, legitimacy, quality, relevance, or sufficiency, rather than merely encoding syntactic or semantic roles alone.

The field focuses on how criterion information is integrated into morphological paradigms. Common avenues include affixal markers that signal adherence to a standard, derivational processes that create category members based on fulfillments of criteria, and morphophonological patterns that reflect gradience or evaluative stance. Criteriamorphology often intersects with semantics, pragmatics, and discourse analysis, exploring how criterion marking influences interpretation, discourse coherence, and social evaluation.

Historically, criteriamorphology arose from discussions in evaluative and classificatory morphology and from cross-linguistic observations of marker systems that seem to license judgments about objects, actions, or states. It remains a developing area, with debates about its definitional boundaries, cross-linguistic salience, and how best to separate criterion marking from related phenomena such as evidentiality, modality, or mood.

Methods typically combine typological surveys, corpus studies, and experimental or elicitation work. Researchers examine morphological inventories, distributional patterns, and contexts in which criterion markers appear, aiming to identify universal tendencies and language-specific strategies.

Related fields include morphosyntax, semantic typology, and sociolinguistics. Critics caution that the concept risks conflating evaluative meaning with grammar mechanics, underscoring the need for clear theoretical criteria and robust cross-linguistic data.