In a tight spot: An analogy-bound gap in the Hungarian verbal paradigm

Abstract

In this paper we describe a phonotactically unmotivated gap in the paradigm of Cs-final verb stems in Hungarian. We show that the forms in the cells where the missing forms would occur must be licensed by other forms in some designated cells of the verbal paradigm. These latter forms, however, are missing in the case of Cs-stems (for independent reasons) and thus the gap is the result of the absence of this paradigmatic licensing (crucially, the missing forms are phonotactically well-formed). Thus, the gap is 'analogically-bound'.

Keywords

• Hungarian
• paradigm
• licensing
• gap
• analogy