Prominence in morphology: The notion of head

Abstract

In this paper we will discuss the notion of prominence in morphology by reviewing how morphological heads are defined through their prominence at different levels. After outlining the main issues and, specially, the problems posed by heads in morphology, we consider how prominence and headedness are dealt with in two different influential contemporary theories: Minimalism and Construction Morphology. Despite being very different in many respects, the two models agree that there is no need for a structural notion of head, because interpretability is guaranteed by the interplay of features within complex constituents.