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Balcania et Slavia | Vol. 3 | Issue 2 | December 2023

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Research Article

Motivating a Morphome

Albanian Case Syncretism as a Case Study

Gjorgje Bozhoviq    University of Belgrade, Serbia    

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abstract

This paper discusses case syncretism patterns in Albanian, arguing for an underlyingly syntactic (i.e. functional) motivation for seemingly ʻmorphomicʼ (i.e. purely formal) metasyncretism patterns in its nominal inflection. It is argued that the distribution of syncretized and non-syncretized forms in the Albanian nominal paradigm is motivated by language economy in such a way that syncretism is used to produce an ʻoptimalʼ distribution of formally distinct case forms, so that the syncretized forms are always in complementary distribution w. r. t. their syntactic functions, and only the minimal necessary number of morphologically different forms remains in the paradigm. From a purely morphological point of view, this creates seemingly ʻmorphomicʼ patterns, in which, as a rule, syncretized forms do not form a natural class. However, these particular syncretism patterns are motivated in fact by the underlying functional ʻneedsʼ (or the lack thereof) of the nominal morphosyntax, so that the distribution of syncretized and non-syncretized forms in the Albanian nominal inflectional paradigm is, in fact, entirely motivated by the division of labour between case and definiteness in the syntax.

Published
Jan. 15, 2024
Accepted
Dec. 5, 2023
Submitted
Aug. 31, 2023
Language
IT

Keywords: Syncretism • Definiteness • Albanian • Case • Morphology-syntax interface • Morphome

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/BES/2785-3187/2023/02/001

Copyright: © 2023 Gjorgje Bozhoviq. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.