A note on the silent GO that underlies an instance of apparent suppletion in Spanish

Abstract

The Spanish counterpart of English go shows apparently suppletive forms as follows. The alternation between v-, f- and i- seems not to be phonological. We can call it 'suppletion' as long as we recognize that doing so leaves questions open that we need to try to answer. In this paper, I will focus on the forms in f-. A familiar way of talking about the f- in question would be to say that it is inserted (late) as a realization of Spanish go in the context of preterite or imperfect subjunctive (or of what the preterite and the imperfect subjunctive have in common). I will, instead, try to throw some light on the identity of preterite and imperfect subjunctive forms across Spanish go and be by bringing in additional considerations that have nothing directly to do with verb morphology.

Keywords

• suppletion
• subjunctive
• Spanish
• morphology
• syntax.