linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...

, blocking refers to the morphological phenomenon in which a possible form for a word cannot surface because it is "blocked" by another form whose features are the most appropriate to the surface form's environment. More basically, it may also be construed as the "non-occurrence of one form due to the simple existence of another."

Word formation In linguistics, word formation is an ambiguous term that can refer to either: * the processes through which words can change (i.e. morphology), or * the creation of new lexemes in a particular language Morphological A common method of word for ...

employs processes such as the plural marker in English ''s'' or ''es'' (e.g. ''dog'' and ''dogs'' or ''wish'' and ''wishes''). This plural marker is not, however, acceptable on the word ''child'' (as in *''childs''), because it is "blocked" by the presence of the competing form ''children'', which in this case inherits features from an older morphological process. Blocking may also prevent the formation of words with existing synonyms, particularly if the blocked form is morphologically complex and the existing synonym is morphologically simple, e.g. *''stealer'' which is blocked by the existing simple form ''thief''. One possible approach to blocking effects is that of Distributed Morphology, which asserts that

semantic Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...

and

syntactic In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituenc ...

features create slots or cells in which items can appear. Blocking happens when one cell is engaged by one form as opposed to another. Blocking has been explained along two primary dimensions: the size of the blocking object, and the existence of ungrammatical forms.

References

Linguistic morphology {{Ling-morph-stub