The intricate inflectional relationships underpinning morphological analogy

Bibliographic Data

ID10139431
AuthorsLouise Esher (0000-0003-4844-3153, Langage, langues et cultures d'Afrique, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume60
Issue2
Pages285-323
Publication date2022-12-27
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-2267 • E-ISSN: 1469-7742
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0022226722000494
OpenAlexW4312220208
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited45

In Gévaudan varieties of Occitan (Gallo-Romance), exceptionless syncretism between preterite and imperfect subjunctive forms arises in the first and second person plural (e.g. faguessiám [faɡeˈsjɔn] ‘do. pret / ipf . sbjv .1 pl ’, faguessiatz [faɡeˈsjat] ‘do. pret / ipf . sbjv .2 pl ’). Reconstructing the historical emergence of this syncretism pattern reveals that it is crucially dependent on multiple and diverse implicational relationships of form, inferred and productively exploited by speakers: in particular, inherited identity between preterite and imperfect subjunctive stems, and identity between imperfect indicative forms of èstre [ɛsˈtʀe] ‘be’ and preterite or imperfect subjunctive desinences. The observed developments support a view of inflectional analogies as informed by intricate paradigmatic and implicational structure of the type proposed within ‘abstractive’, word-based theories of inflection

Analogy · Imperfect · Inflection · Linguistics · Markedness · Plural · Romance languages · Syncretism (linguistics · History · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Linguistics and language evolution · Medieval European Literature and History · Philosophy

Tools

Open DOI