Suppletion

Abstract

AbstractSuppletion is morphological irregularity in the extreme where stems inhabiting the same paradigm have zero phonological relationship such asgo:wentin English. It is a phenomenon that linguists have had to reckon with as far back as Pāṇini since it is pervasive in language, and primarily affects high‐frequency items. Questions answered here include: How does it arise in a language? What are its origins? What counts as suppletion? Is there ‘better’ or ‘worse’ suppletion? Are there tendencies that can be observed when comparing suppletion across languages? What features arenormallyat play? And what are the implications of suppletion for the place of paradigms in language description? This entry looks at the origins of the arrival of the phonologically distinct stem in a lexeme's set of forms, and the coalescence of attributes characterizing suppletion cases. A distinction is drawn betweentypicalandcanonicalsuppletion when a canonical lens is held up to suppletion phenomena. The discussion brings to the foreground the centrality of the paradigm for a robust treatment of suppletion.