This paper describes a novel undertaking: comparing the relationship between grammatical ambiguity (syncretism) in nouns, as represented in a default inheritance hierarchy, with textual frequency distributions. In order to do this we consider a language with a reasonable number of grammatical distinctions and where syncretism occurs in different morphological classes. We investigated this relat...

The aim of this paper is to provide a plausible possibility to analyse bidirectional syncretism patterns of the type Stump (2001) has described for several languages. For many morphological frameworks an analysis of these syncretism patterns poses several problems, because one must stipulate directional rules to ensure the right marker distribution. The mechanism can be seen as a possible exten...

Syncretism, where a single form corresponds to multiple morphosyntactic functions, is pervasive in languages with inflectional morphology. Its interpretation highlights the contrast between different views of the status of morphology. For some, morphology lacks independent structure, and syncretism reflects the internal structure of morphosyntactic features. For others, morphological structure ...

Syncretism is the area of the morphologysyntax interface where morphology fails the syntax. Inadequate treatment in the design of a morphological analyzer can lead to unbalanced performance of the analyzer either at generation, or at analysis. Furthermore, adequate and consistent treatment of syncretism is needed if the analyzer is to be used for language modeling, especially modeling of the sy...

The main goal of this article is to outline a new approach to syncretism in optimality theory, one that does not rely on the concept of underspecification taken over from grammatical theories which do not recognize constraint ranking and constraint violability. The analysis is based on a concept of morphological exponents as leading forms. Instances of syncretism can be traced back to the selec...

The main goal of this article is to outline a new approach to syncretism in optimality theory, one that does not rely on tools like underspecification or rules of referral that are taken over from grammatical theories which do not recognize constraint ranking and constraint violability. The analysis is based on a concept of morphological exponents as leading forms. Instances of syncretism can b...

Antonio Obá (b.1983) was born and grew up in Ceilândia, a dormitory town thirty kilometres outside of Brazil’s capital, Brasilia. Though this may not seem like an especially significant biographical detail considering Obá’s work – other writers, for example, have focused on the artist’s race devout Catholic upbringing­ I argue that foundational fact upbringing experience is more telling than fi...

In this paper, I present the results of an examination of the relational morphology in 76 Tibeto-Burman languages, primarily from the Bodic section of Tibeto-Burman. I will discuss a set of etymons used to express relational functions and show how the meanings of the reflexes of these etymons have evolved. I will then go on to discuss overall patterns of syncretism of relational markers in thes...

In this paper I discuss the phenomenon of syncretism in German and show that current type-based approaches are unable to combine the treatment of feature indeterminacy with the virtues of underspecification. I will then propose a revised organisation of the inflectional type hierarchies suggested by Daniels (2001), drawing on a systematic distinction between inherent and external (case) require...

The main goal of this article is to outline a new approach to syncretism in optimality theory, one that does not rely on the concept of underspecification taken over from grammatical theories which do not recognize constraint ranking and constraint violability. The analysis is based on a concept of morphological exponents as LEADING FORMS. Instances of syncretism can be traced back to the selec...