Syncretism (linguistics)

Syncretism is the coincidence of inflections, such as the same in the German ending at different case. Syncretism occur mainly in the Indo-European language family.

Expressed morphologically syncretisms markers of identical shape, express the different values ​​of a feature. A distinction between intra- paradigmatic and trans- paradigmatic syncretism, whereby intra- paradigmatic syncretism within a Flexionsaffix occur during trans- paradigmatic syncretism occur in different paradigms, such as the German suffix -en the one hand, in the inflected adjectives (see example below), on the other hand, at infinite verb forms like " go -en ". In the following, we restrict ourselves to intra- paradigmatic syncretism.

• 2.1 This specification
• 2.2 Implikativer paradigm structure

Examples

Weak adjective inflection in German

This paradigm occurs when the adjective after the definite article is, for example, the well -e wine, the well -en wine, well -en women, etc.

Thus, this paradigm has two syncretism: -e and -en.

Weak nominal inflection of the Icelandic

In this paradigm dive six syncretisms on: -i,- a,- u,- ar, -ur ,-um (the -n- in [Gen Pl Neut ] by aug- here is word- specific).

Application

In linguistics, it is believed that certain syncretism are no accident, therefore the so-called Synkretismusprinzip was formulated:

"Identity of form implies identity of function"

This means that two morphemes within a paradigm with matching shape ( ie they are syncretisms ) also have similar features encode ( may - the Synkretismusprinzip is not a fundamental principle of linguistics, but rather the basis for a way of analysis of syncretism ).

Under specification

To describe, for example, the weak adjective inflection in German, is made of the Synkretismusprinzip use: The table above shows that the ending- e is present in all nominative singular genera and neuter / feminine of the accusative singular, in all other cases, the Flexionsaffix -en. If we now assume that characteristics such as gender, number and case can be further abstracted:

Where ± sgl, ± mask, fem ±, ± a and ± b abstract subcategories (so-called " disktinktive features") are the encoded features of the adjective inflection. Repeat the procedure to divide features into subcategories, called decomposition. Note: The importance of subcategories ± a and ± b is is immaterial.

Using these assumptions can now with relatively little effort the exact distribution of the syncretism of this paradigm assign:

The fact that the suffixes only 3, 2 or no wear characteristics, called underspecification, ie, it is only marked the features that are maximally needed to identify a unique suffix. If now an adjective stem, eg beautiful - the features [plural, fem, genitive ], this is first decomposed ( [ sgl -, -mask - fem ,-a, b ] ) and subsequently standing available with the possible matched endings, so it the affix is selected, the feature set is a subset of the attribute set of the strain ( " subset principle"). In this case, none of the specific endings- en2 or -e is true, therefore, the so-called "Default Marker", that would be the one for which no specific features are coded, assigned in this case - en1. Should now "fit" an affix on two endings ( eg a strain with the features [ akk, sgl, mask] or [ sgl, a -b mask - fem ], where both the characteristics of - e and by - en2 subset of the characteristics of the strain are ), is chosen the more specific. More specifically, is the one marker that has more features encoded as all other relevant markers, in this case - en2.

The current research in the field of distributed everywhere morphology tried find ways, which requires only a maximum of as many rules as there are syncretism within a paradigm. Thereby represent non-rectangular Synkretismusfelder, like that of -e in the weak adjective inflection, a problem with under specified dar. feature quantities can namely always cover only rectangular areas. Therefore, it is not possible in this case to describe the two Synkretismusfelder correctly with less than three rules. However, using multiple rules for a Synkretismusfeld, then one has not acquired a relevant generalization of the language concerned.

Implikativer paradigm structure

This theory is based on the observation that, for example, the accusative usually has the same forms as the nominative and the dative follows the genitive. This is achieved by the assignments

Expressed. ( The plural is understood here as " fourth genus .") Now, if an exponent is assigned to a feature set, eg for the strong adjective inflection [MASK, NOM ]: = - he showed in addition other assignments: Due NEUTR: = 's and because of AKK: also [MASK, AKK ] = NOM = MASK apply, also [ NEUTR, NOM ] applies: = - he and [ NEUTR, AKK ]: = -er. Incorrectly predicted exponent must be corrected by more specific rules. Unfortunately, this theory does not come from having fewer rules than the above.

Target

The aim of it is to use as little as possible coded features to describe a paradigm as closely as possible. It should be possible to reduce the information stored in the mental lexicon to a minimum, allowing optimal access to stored in the header information.