Contre le principe de maximisation du thème : le témoignage de la flexion verbale du sarde

In recent work on Romance verb morphology, it has been argued that the segmentation of inflected forms should be automatized, in obedience to a Stem Maximization Principle, which stipulates that any recurrent word partial, within a given paradigm, should be treated eo ipso as a stem. The consequences of this principle are explored here, discussing empirical evidence from Sardinian verb inflection. The data, it is shown, militate in favour of an alternative view according to which the segmentation of stems and inflectional endings must be decided locally and inductively, for reasons of descriptive economy rather than deductively, in compliance with such a general principle.