What Morphology can Tell us about Grammar

Most evolved characteristics of organisms show aspects of poor design due to historical accident. It would be surprising if language were different. I argue that the existence of morphology, distinct from syntax, is one example of poor design. Yet there are things that morphology is good at which help to account for otherwise mysterious and apparently functionless morphological phenomena. I give four examples, involving data from Afrikaans, Russian, Polish and Italian. Syntacticians need to bear in mind that aspects of syntax may be poorly designed also. I suggest that grammatical functions such as 'subject' and 'object' may fall into this category.