Two suppletive adjectives in Megleno-Romanian

Abstract

This study involves the existence in Megleno-Romanian dialects of a lexically suppletive distinction between singular and plural forms of the adjectives meaning 'small' and 'big' . The phenomenon has gone largely unnoticed both by comparative Romance linguists and by morphological theorists yet it is both typologically surprising and theoretically significant. Analysis of a remarkably similar phenomenon in mainland Scandinavian languages led Börjars and Vincent (2011) to propose a considerably attenuated version of Maiden's claim (2004) that lexical synonymy can drive the diachronic emergence of suppletion. My close investigation of the the source of the suppletion in Megleno-Romanian, and consideration of the Scandinavian facts in the light of the Megleno-Romanian data, will show that in fact the emergence of suppletion in just these adjectives constitutes excellent evidence for the claim that lexical synonymy favours suppletion.

Suppletive Stem Distribution: A Diachronic Perspective

“…śāwaṃ ‘big’. In all four cases, the crucial step was a semantic reinterpretation in the plural from ‘X consisting of big/small pieces’ to ‘big/small X’; for discussion, see respectively Börjars & Vincent (), Maiden (), Jørgensen (), Nurmio (), and Kim (: section 2.2). However, several adjectives in IE languages attest arbitrary stem alternations that cut across the categories of number, case, gender, and/or definiteness, as in the examples below.…”

The development and typology of number suppletion in adjectives

“…Corbett (2007: 32) also briefly mentions adjectival suppletion in Mara (Northern Territory, Australia). Jørgensen (2012) was the first to my knowledge to demonstrate number suppletion in adjectives in medieval Breton and Cornish, while Maiden (2014) drew attention to Megleno-Romanian dialects. To this inventory I now propose to add suppletion in Tariana (Arawak, Brazil) and Menominee (Algonquian, US).…”

Morphological theory and orthography:Kanjias a representation of lexemes

“…However, such a semantic relation should be seen as the basis for speakers' (perhaps linguistically inaccurate) perception of lexemic synonymy, not as the basis for the development of suppletion itself. That is, such degree of semantic closeness as hyponymy is often enough for speakers to perceive lexemic synonymy.The first and most fundamental reason for us to adhere to Maiden's view is that it is unclear why semantic asymmetry should be resolved in the first place; it is prevalent among lexemes (Maiden 2013: Section 5). In contrast, synonymy avoidance is a widely acknowledged property of human language (e.g.…”

“…Second, in many cases suppletion emerges when the original semantic asymmetry is blurred grammatically or cognitively. Maiden (2013) shows that a very rare type of suppletion occurs exactly where the original asymmetry is neutralised by grammatical contexts to yield a virtually synonymous relation. In the Japanese case to be discussed below, L2 learning is the source of blurring; it is dubious that ancient Japanese people learning Chinese managed to accurately identify the asymmetric semantic relation between their L1 and L2 lexemes.…”

“…The first and most fundamental reason for us to adhere to Maiden's view is that it is unclear why semantic asymmetry should be resolved in the first place; it is prevalent among lexemes (Maiden 2013: Section 5). In contrast, synonymy avoidance is a widely acknowledged property of human language (e.g.…”