Suppletion
Under Suppletion (from latin supplere complement 'also Suppletivismus ) is understood in the linguistics the formation of various forms of a word inflectional paradigm using the "different" roots . In contrast, there are non-suppletivic paradigms in which all forms can be traced back to the same root. Supplementary systems occur mainly for frequently used words.
Examples
Adjectives
Take three adjectives as an example . In the first line there is a German non-suppletivic paradigm (hell), in the second a German suppletivic (good). In the third line there is a Latin suppletivic adjective ( bonus , which also means “good”) to demonstrate that a suppletive system (short for “suppletivic paradigm”) can extend to the whole paradigm.
| positive | comparative | superlative | |
|---|---|---|---|
| German , non-suppletivisch | bright | brighter | the brightest |
| German, suppletivisch | Well | better | preferably |
| Latin , suppletivic | bonus | melior | optimus |
Verbs
Many Indo-European languages have supplementary systems in the verbs :
| infinitive | Present | preterite | Perfect | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| German | be | am | was | been |
| English | go | go | went | gone |
| Latin | eat | sum | he at | fuisse |
Nouns
In Indo-European languages, suppletion is less common in nouns .
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| English | person | people |
| German | Miner | Miners |
| Breton | ki ('dog') | chas ('dogs') |
| Breton | buoc'h ('cow') | saout ('cows') |
Differentiation from other stem changes
Change of stem by umlaut and ablaut
In German and the Germanic languages in general, there is often a change in the stem in the paradigm due to umlaut or ablaut . Even if the stem of the word changes as a result, this is not a suppletion, because the original stem remains the same:
- strong - stronger - strongest
- sing - sang - sung
Strain change through sound change
The change from genu s to gen r is (Latin for “birth”, “descent”) is not a suppletion, but is based on a phonetic process: / s / between vowels changed in the pre-classical period to / r / ( Rhotazism ) .
Remarks
- ↑ Non-supplementary flexion paradigms do not have to be regular. Think of the Irish bean, nominative plural mná, which is not regular, but can be derived from a single Urindo-European tribe. This is a stem change through sound change .
- ↑ The Little Stowasser. Latin-German school dictionary, 1991 edition, ISBN 3-209-00225-8 , p. XVII, § 29.
literature
- Werner Beckmann. Suppletion in Low German (= Low German Studies. Volume 47). Böhlau, Cologne 2002, ISBN 978-3-412-06100-5 .