Failing one ’ s obligations : Defectiveness in

Compared with some other authors in the present volume, I do not have an overall theory of defectiveness and the status of paradigmatic gaps to offer in this paper. As opposed to the rich and varied array of defectiveness documented by Boyé &Hofherr, this volume, for other Romance languages, I have only one poor little crippled verb to offer up on parade: a single verb in a relatively obscure language which lacks many of the forms other verbs have, forcing speakers to use a distinct, nearly (but not quite) synonymous verb in its stead. e broader context in which this situation arises is, however, of some interest, I think, and it provides an opportunity to raise (if not to resolve) the question of how gaps should be treated in the context of Optimality eory. e language in question is Surmiran, a form of Swiss Rumantsch, although as I will note somewhat similar phenomena are attested in other related languages. Surmiran is of course a Romance language, and one of a range of fairly closely related languages spoken primarily in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. Beyond that, however, its affiliations within Romance are somewhat controversial. Traditionally, Swiss Rumantsch is grouped together with Friulian and the Ladin languages of the Dolomites as a “Rhaeto-Romance” sub-group of Gallo-Romance. e languages in question are shown in Figure ; among the Swiss Rumantsch languages, those with distinct literary and orthographic standards are unparenthesized, while several other quite distinct forms of Rumantsch (not at all an exhaustive list) are given in parentheses.