Syncretism

Abstract

Syncretism occurs where two or more distinct morphosyntactic values are collapsed in a single inflected word form. In the current literature, instances of syncretism are being increasingly cited to support particular models of morphology and feature structure. This article takes a critical look at the sorts of analyses that the data actually warrant, in particular showing the limitations of an approach that treats syncretism as dependent on morphosyntactic feature structure.

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