Semi-separate exponence in cumulative paradigms. Information-theoretic properties exemplified by Ancient Greek verb endings

Linguistic Issues in Language Technology

Paolo Milizia¹ 

[1] Università degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale.

关键词: inflectional morphology;    linguistic typology;    information theory;    cumulative exponence;    syncretism;    entropy;    redundancy;    Ancient Greek;   

DOI  :  

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: C S L I Publications

【 摘 要 】

By using the system of Ancient Greek verb endings as a case study, this paper deals with the cross-linguistically recurrent appearance of inflectional paradigms that, though generally characterized by cumu- lative exponence, contain segmentable “semi-separate” endings in cor- respondence with low-frequency cells. Such an exponence system has information-theoretic properties which may be relevant from the point of view of morphological theory. In particular, both the phenomena of semi-separate exponence and the instances of syncretism that con- form to the Brøndalian Principle of Compensation may be viewed as different manifestations of a same cross-linguistic tendency not to let a paradigm’s exponent set be too distant from the situation of equiprobability. .

【 授权许可】

Unknown