Suppletion

Under suppletion (also: Suppletivismus ) is understood in linguistics the formation of various forms of a word Flexionsparadigmas using various roots as opposed to a non- suppletivischen paradigm in which all forms are traceable to the same root.

Examples

As an example may be mentioned three adjectives. In the first column is a non- suppletivisches paradigm ( "bright" ), in the second a German suppletivisches ( "good"). In the third column is a Latin example of a suppletivisches adjective (bonus, whatever "good" means ) to demonstrate that a Suppletivsystem may extend to the whole paradigm.

Occurrence

A Suppletivsystem (short for " suppletivisches paradigm ") must not be limited to the category of adjectives. Many Indo-European languages ​​have Suppletivsysteme in the verbs:

• English go - went - gone
• Latin esse - sum - fui
• German: am - was - (ge) essentially

In the Indo-European languages ​​suppletion is very rare in nouns, if any: in German there is in this respect some Pluralia tantum as people and parents with suppletive singulars (man and woman or mother and father) can be assigned.

Distinction of different strain changes

Master Change by Umlaut

In German, but also in other languages ​​, often occurs in the paradigm also a change of the strain through an umlaut. Although this changes the root word, this is no suppletion, because the original strain remains the same. Example: strong - stronger - most

Master Change by sound change

Also the change of genus to generis (Latin for " birth ", " origin " ) is no suppletion, as between vowels changed the Latin before the classical period from S to R ( so-called Latin rhotacism ). The so-called Heteroklitika belong to the same category, but this sound change has already taken place to Indo-European time.

Origin

Suppletivsysteme may arise from the fact that a word originally has a regular paradigm, although the word more power is conferred by additions, later replacing the regular forms. Therefore Suppletivsysteme occur mainly in frequently used words.

Reference

• Linguistic morphology