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Article published In:
Revue Romane
Vol. 57:1 (2022) ► pp.86–115
Articles linguistiques

Overlapping subjunctive forms in Gallo- and Ibero-Romance verb paradigms

| CNRS (LLACAN, UMR 8135)

In several varieties of Catalan, Valencian and Occitan, inflectional exponents originating in the imperfect subjunctive (reflex of Latin pluperfect subjunctive) are analogically extended into the first and second person plural present subjunctive forms, resulting in syncretism between present and imperfect subjunctive forms for the relevant persons. The scope and directionality of such extensions are remarkably consistent, and are indicative of a change driven by the structure of the inflectional paradigm in the relevant varieties. A significant consequence of this development, which fits into a general Romance tendency for analogical remodelling of first and second person plural forms, is alignment between previously overlapping distributions of stem allomorphs and stress placement, and thus greater predictability of inflected forms.

Keywords: syncretism, analogical change, verb inflection, Occitan, Catalan, Valencian
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Present and imperfect subjunctives in the diachrony of Romance metamorphomes
    • 2.1Romance metamorphomes involving the present and imperfect subjunctives
    • 2.2Clash, coalescence and shared exponents
  • 3.Analogical extension of root allomorphs and stem formatives
    • 3.1Spread of a thematic velar consonant
    • 3.2Summary
  • 4.Importation and syncretism
    • 4.1Importation with syncretism, affecting prs.sbjv.1pl and prs.sbjv.2pl
      • 4.1.1Overview of importation with syncretism
      • 4.1.2Interaction with conjugation class and root allomorphy
      • 4.1.3Existing approaches to the actuation and directionality of importation with syncretism
    • 4.2Importation without syncretism, affecting prs.sbjv.1pl and prs.sbjv.2pl
    • 4.3Importation and category loss
    • 4.4Summary
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 28 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/rro.20009.esh
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