Suppletion

In linguistics and etymology, suppletion is traditionally understood as the use of one word as the inflected form of another word when the two words are not cognate. For those learning a language, suppletive forms will be seen as "irregular" or even "highly irregular". For example, ''go:went'' is a suppletive paradigm, because ''go'' and ''went'' are not etymologically related, whereas ''mouse:mice'' is irregular but not suppletive, since the two words come from the same Old English ancestor.

The term "suppletion" implies that a gap in the paradigm was filled by a form "supplied" by a different paradigm. Instances of suppletion are overwhelmingly restricted to the most commonly used lexical items in a language.

Irregularity and suppletion

An irregular paradigm is one in which the derived forms of a word cannot be deduced by simple rules from the base form. For example, someone who knows only a little English can deduce that the plural of ''girl'' is ''girls'' but cannot deduce that the plural of ''man'' is ''men''. Language learners are often most aware of irregular verbs, but any part of speech with inflections can be irregular.

For most synchronic purposes—first-language acquisition studies, psycholinguistics, language-teaching theory—it suffices to note that these forms are irregular. However, historical linguistics seeks to explain how they came to be so and distinguishes different kinds of irregularity according to their origins.

Most irregular paradigms (like ''man:men'') can be explained by phonological developments that affected one form of a word but not another (in this case, Germanic umlaut). In such cases, the historical antecedents of the current forms once constituted a regular paradigm.

Historical linguistics uses the term "suppletion"
to distinguish irregularities like ''person:people'' or '' cow:cattle'' that cannot be so explained because the parts of the paradigm have not evolved out of a single form.

Hermann Osthoff coined the term "suppletion" in German in an 1899 study of the phenomenon in Indo-European languages.

Suppletion exists in many languages around the world. These languages are from various language families: Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Semitic, Romance, etc.

For example, in Georgian, the paradigm for the verb "to come" is composed of four different roots (, , , and ; , , , ).

Similarly, in Modern Standard Arabic, the verb ' ('come') usually uses the form ' for its imperative, and the plural of ' ('woman') is '.

Some of the more archaic Indo-European languages are particularly known for suppletion. Ancient Greek, for example, has some twenty verbs with suppletive paradigms, many with three separate roots.

Example words

To go

In English, the past tense of the verb ''go'' is ''went'', which comes from the past tense of the verb ''wend'', archaic in this sense. (The modern past tense of ''wend'' is ''wended''.) See '' Go (verb)''.

The Romance languages have a variety of suppletive forms in conjugating the verb "to go", as these first-person singular forms illustrate (second-person singular forms in imperative):

The sources of these forms, numbered in the table, are six different Latin verbs:
# ‘to go, proceed’,
# ‘to go’
# ‘to go around’, also the source for Spanish and Portuguese ‘to walk’
# ‘to walk’, or perhaps another Latin root, a Celtic root, or a Germanic root or
# suppletive perfective of ‘to be’.
# ‘to go along’.

Many of the Romance languages use forms from different verbs in the present tense; for example, French has ‘I go’ from , but ‘we go’ from . Galician-Portuguese has a similar example: from ‘to go’ and from ‘we go’; the former is somewhat disused in modern Portuguese but very alive in modern Galician. Even , from second-person plural of , is the only form for ‘you (plural) go’ both in Galician and Portuguese (Spanish , from ).

Sometimes, the conjugations differ between dialects. For instance, the '' Limba Sarda Comuna'' standard of Sardinian supported a fully regular conjugation of , but other dialects like Logudorese do not (see also Sardinian conjugation). In Romansh, '' Rumantsch Grischun'' substitutes present and subjunctive forms of ''ir'' with ''vom'' and ''giaja'' (both are from Latin ''vādere'' and ''īre'', respectively) in the place of ''mon'' and ''mondi'' in Sursilvan.

Similarly, the Welsh verb ‘to go’ has a variety of suppletive forms such as ‘I shall go’ and ‘we went’. Irish ‘to go’ also has suppletive forms: ‘going’ and ‘will go’.

In Estonian, the inflected forms of the verb ‘to go’ were originally those of a verb cognate with the Finnish ‘to leave’, except for the passive and infinitive.

Good and bad

In Germanic, Romance (except Romanian), Celtic, Slavic (except Bulgarian and Macedonian), and Indo-Iranian languages, the comparative and superlative of the adjective "good" is suppletive; in many of these languages the adjective "bad" is also suppletive.

The comparison of "good" is also suppletive in → → and → → .

Similarly to the Italian noted above, the English adverb form of "good" is the unrelated word "well", from Old English , cognate to "to wish".

Great and small

Celtic languages:

:
:

In many Slavic languages, ''great'' and ''small'' are suppletive:
:
:

Examples in languages

Albanian

In Albanian there are 14 irregular verbs divided into suppletive and non-suppletive:
:

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek had a large number of suppletive verbs. A few examples, listed by principal parts:
:*''erkhomai, eîmi/eleusomai, ēlthon, elēlutha, —, —'' "go, come".
:*''legō, eraō (erô) / leksō, eipon / eleksa, eirēka, eirēmai / lelegmai, elekhthēn / errhēthēn'' "say, speak".
:*''horaō, opsomai, eidon, heorāka / heōrāka, heōrāmai / ōmmai, ōphthēn'' "see".
:*''pherō, oisō, ēnegka / ēnegkon, enēnokha, enēnegmai, ēnekhthēn'' "carry".
:*''pōleō, apodōsomai, apedomēn, peprāka, peprāmai, eprāthēn'' "sell".

Bulgarian

In Bulgarian, the word ("man", "human being") is suppletive. The strict plural form, , is used only in Biblical context (like "brethren" as the archaic or symbolic plural of "brother" in English). In modern usage it has been replaced by the Greek loan . The counter form (the special form for masculine nouns, used after numerals) is suppletive as well: (with the accent on the first syllable). For example, ("two, three people"); this form has no singular either. (A related but different noun is the plural , singular ("soul"), both with accent on the last syllable.)

English

In English, the complicated irregular verb ''to be'' has forms from several different roots:
*''be'', ''been'', ''being''—from Old English ''bēon'' ("to be, become"), from Proto-Germanic *''beuną'' ("to be, exist, come to be, become"), from Proto-Indo-European *''bʰúHt'' (“to grow, become, come into being, appear”), from the root *''bʰuH-'' ("to become, grow, appear").
*''am'', ''is'', ''are''—from Middle English ''am, em, is, aren'', from Old English ''eam, eom, is, earun, earon'', from Proto-Germanic *''immi'', *''izmi'', *''isti'', *''arun'', all forms of the verb *''wesaną'' ("to be; dwell"), from Proto-Indo-European *''h₁ésmi'' ("I am, I exist"), from the root *''h₁es-'' ("to be").
*''was'', ''were''—from Old English ''wæs'', ''wǣre'', from Proto-Germanic *''was'', *''wēz'', from the Proto-Indo-European root *''h₂wes''- ("to dwell, reside")

This verb is suppletive in most Indo-European languages, as well as in some non-Indo-European languages such as Finnish.

An incomplete suppletion exists in English with the plural of ''person'' (from the Latin ). The regular plural ''persons'' occurs mainly in legalistic use. More commonly, the singular of the unrelated noun ''people'' (from Latin ) is used as the plural; for example, "two people were living on a one-person salary" (note the plural verb). In its original sense of "populace, ethnic group", ''people'' is itself a singular noun with regular plural ''peoples''.

Hungarian

* The verb "to be": ("there is"), , ("I am", "you are"), ("to be"), ("will be"), , ("there is not", "there is neither", replacing + and + respectively).
* The verb ("come") has the imperative (the regular is dated).
* The numeral ("many/a lot") has the comparative and the superlative .
* The adverb ("a little") has the comparative and the superlative .
* Many inflected forms of personal pronouns are formed by using the suffix as the base: ("to me") from (dative suffix) and (first person singular possessive suffix). Even among these, the superessive form ("on") uses the root instead of the suffix .
* The numerals , ("one", "two") have the ordinal forms , ("first", "second"). However they are regular in compounds: , ("eleventh", "twelfth").

Irish

Several irregular Irish verbs are suppletive:

* ''abair'' (to say): derived from Old Irish ''as·beir'', from Proto-Indo-European roots *''h₁eǵʰs''- ("out") and *''bʰer''- ("bear, carry"). However, the verbal noun ''rá'' is derived from Old Irish ''rád'', ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *''reh₂dʰ-'' ("perform successfully").
* ''bí'' (to be): derived from Proto-Indo-European *''bʰuH''- ("grow, become, come into being, appear"). However, the present tense form ''tá'' is derived from Old Irish ''at·tá'', from Proto-Celtic *''ad-tāyeti'', ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *''steh₂''- ("stand").
* ''beir'' (to catch): derived from Proto-Indo-European *''bʰer''- ("bear, carry"). However, the past tense form ''rug'' is derived from Old Irish ''rouic'', which is from Proto-Celtic *''ɸro-ōnkeyo''-, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European roots *''pro''- ("forth, forward") and *''h₂neḱ''- ("reach").
* ''feic'' (to see): derived from Old Irish ''aicci'', from Proto-Indo-European *''kʷey''- ("observe"). However, the past tense form ''chonaic'' is derived from Old Irish '' ad·condairc'', ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *''derḱ₂''- ("see").
* ''téigh'' (to go): derived from Old Irish ''téit'', from Proto-Indo-European *''stéygʰeti''- ("to be walking, to be climbing"). However, the future form ''rachaidh'' is derived from Old Irish ''regae'', ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *''h₁r̥gʰ''- ("go, move"), while the verbal noun ''dul'' is from *''h₁ludʰét'' ("arrive").

There are several suppletive comparative and superlative forms in Irish; in addition to the ones listed above, there is:
*''fada'', "long"; comparative ''níos faide'' or ''níos sia'' — ''fada'' is from Old Irish ''fota'', from Proto-Indo-European *''wasdʰos'' (“long, wide”); compare Latin ''vāstus'' (“wide”), while ''sia'' is from Old Irish ''sír'' ("long, long-lasting"), from Proto-Celtic *''sīros'' (“long”); compare Welsh/Breton ''hir''.

Japanese

In modern Japanese, the copulae だ, である and です take な to create "attributive forms" of adjectival nouns (hence the English moniker, "''na''-adjectives"):

The "conclusive" and "attributive" forms, だ and な, were constructed similarly, from a combination of a particle and an inflection form of the old verb あり (''ari'', "to exist").
*で + あり ("conclusive") → であり → であ → だ
*に + ある ("attributive") → なる → なん → な

(Note: で itself was also a contraction of earlier にて.)

In modern Japanese, である ("conclusive") simply retains the older appearance of だ, while です is a different verb that can be used as a suppleted form of だ. Multiple hypotheses have been proposed for the etymology of です, one of which is a contraction of であります:
*で + あり ("adverbial") + ます → であります → です

The basic construction of the negative form of a Japanese verb is the "irrealis" form followed by ない, which would result in such hypothetical constructions as *だらない and *であらない. However, these constructions are not used in modern Japanese, and the construction ではない is used instead. This is because *あらない, the hypothetically regular negative form of ある, is not used either, and is simply replaced with ない.
*あら ("irrealis") + ない → ない
*であら ("irrealis") + ない → ではない
*だら ("irrealis") + ない → ではない → じゃない

While the auxiliary ない causes suppletion, other auxiliaries such as ん and ありません do not necessarily.
*あら ("irrealis") + ん → あらん
*あり ("adverbial") + ませ + ん → ありません
*であり ("adverbial") + ませ + ん → でありません

For です, its historical "irrealis" form, でせ has not been attested to create a negative form (only でせう → でしょう has been attested, and there were and are no *でせん and *でせない). Thus, it has to borrow でありません as its negative form instead.

To express a potential meaning, as in "can do", most verbs use the "irrealis" form followed by れる or られる. する, notably has no such construction, and has to use a different verb for this meaning, できる.

Latin

Latin has several suppletive verbs. A few examples, listed by principal parts:
:*''sum, esse, fuī, futūrus'' - "be".
:*''ferō, ferre, tulī or tetulī, lātus'' - "carry, bear".
:*''fīō, fierī, factus sum'' (suppletive and semi-deponent) - "become, be made, happen"

Polish

In some Slavic languages, a few verbs have imperfective and perfective forms arising from different roots. For example, in Polish:

Note that , , , and are prefixes and are not part of the root

In Polish, the plural form of ("year") is which comes from the plural of ("summer"). A similar suppletion occurs in ("year") > (genitive of "years").

Romanian

The Romanian verb ("to be") is suppletive and irregular, with the infinitive coming from Latin ''fieri'', but conjugated forms from forms of already suppletive Latin ''sum''. For example, ("I am"), ("you are"), ("I have been"), ("I used to be"), ("I was"); while the subjunctive, also used to form the future in ("I will be/am going to be"), is linked to the infinitive.

Russian

In Russian, the word ("man, human being") is suppletive. The strict plural form, , is used only in Orthodox Church contexts, with numerals (e. g. "five people") and in humorous context. It may have originally been the unattested . In any case, in modern usage, it has been replaced by , the singular form of which is known in Russian only as a component of compound words (such as ). This suppletion also exists in Polish ( > ), Czech ( > ), Serbo-Croatian ( > ), Slovene ( > ), and Macedonian ( () > ()).

Generalizations

Strictly speaking, suppletion occurs when different ''inflections'' of a lexeme (i.e., with the same lexical category) have etymologically ''unrelated'' stems. The term is also used in looser senses, albeit less formally.

Semantic relations

The term "suppletion" is also used in the looser sense when there is a semantic link between words but not an etymological one; unlike the strict inflectional sense, these may be in different lexical categories, such as noun/verb.''Aspects of the theory of morphology,'' by Igor Mel’čuk
p. 461
/ref>

English noun/adjective pairs such as father/paternal or cow/bovine are also referred to as collateral adjectives. In this sense of the term, ''father''/''fatherly'' is non-suppletive. ''Fatherly'' is derived from ''father'', while father/paternal is suppletive. Likewise ''cow''/''cowish'' is non-suppletive, while ''cow''/''bovine'' is suppletive.

In these cases, father/pater- and cow/bov- are cognate via Proto-Indo-European, but 'paternal' and 'bovine' are borrowings into English (via Old French and Latin). The pairs are distantly etymologically related, but the words are not from a single Modern English stem.

Weak suppletion

The term "weak suppletion" is sometimes used in contemporary synchronic morphology in reference to sets of stems whose alternations cannot be accounted for by synchronically productive phonological rules. For example, the two forms ''child''/''children'' are etymologically from the same source, but the alternation does not reflect any regular morphological process in modern English: this makes the pair appear to be suppletive, even though the forms go back to the same root.

In that understanding, English has abundant examples of weak suppletion in its verbal inflection: e.g. ''bring''/''brought'', ''take''/''took'', ''see''/''saw'', etc. Even though the forms are etymologically related in each pair, no productive morphological rule can derive one form from the other in synchrony. Alternations just have to be learned by speakers — in much the same way as truly suppletive pairs such as ''go''/''went''.

Such cases, which were traditionally simply labelled " irregular", are sometimes described with the term "weak suppletion", so as to restrict the term "suppletion" to etymologically unrelated stems.

See also

* Collateral adjective—denominal adjectives based on a suppletive root, such as ''arm ~ brachial''
* Irregular verb

References

External links

{{Wiktionary, suppletion
Surrey Suppletion Database
– examples of suppletion in different languages

Grammar
Linguistic morphology