Word-based Items-and-processes (WoBIP): Evidence from Hebrew morphology

In his seminal book A-Morphous Morphology, Anderson provides ample evidence supporting the item-and-process approach to morphology, whereby relations between words, and thus the derivation of one word from another is expressed in terms of processes. Although Anderson excluded Semitic languages from the paradigm, I argue in this paper for the advantage of item-and-process in the analysis of Modern Hebrew word relations. Under this approach, the word/stem is the base, and the putative consonant root is just a residue of phonological elements, which are lexically prominent as are consonants in non-Semitic languages. The empirical basis of the arguments is drawn from natural and experimental data of adult Hebrew as well as child Hebrew.