Abstract
This paper offers some reflections on the study of morphology – broadly speaking, ‘word formation’ – as a
participants’ resource in social interaction. I begin by calling attention to morphology as a comparatively underexamined
component of linguistic structure by conversation analysts and interactional linguists, in that it has yet to receive the same
dedicated consideration as have, e.g., phonetics and syntax. I then present an ongoing study of suffixes/suffixation in Spanish –
focusing on diminutives (e.g., –ito), augmentatives (e.g., –ote), and superlatives (i.e.,
–ísimo) – and describe how the sequentiality of interaction can offer analysts profound insight into
participants’ orientations to morphological resources. With what I refer to as ‘morphological transformations’ – exemplified here
in both same-turn and next-turn positions – interactants sequentially construct and expose morphological complexity as such,
locally instantiating its relevance in the service of action. It is argued that a focus on transformations therefore provides
analysts with a means to ‘break into’ morphology-based collections. A range of cases are presented to illustrate this
methodological approach, before a concluding discussion in which I describe how morphology-focused investigations may intersect
with explorations of other interactional phenomena.