Paradigmatic and Inflectional Change: Some Theoretical Lessons

Several paradigm-based morphological changes in Greek and Latin are presented, including a persistent and recurring type of change involving the reshaping of inflectional endings based on other endings, that provide evidence first for the existence of paradigms and then for their internal structure. These considerations lead to an exploration of the relevance of various theoretical constructs and notions (e.g. rules of referral, OOcorrespondence relations, constraints on syncretism, and directionality in grammaticalization), and to (hopefully, informed) speculation on what speakers really know about morphology and what they really do with it.