Macroparadigm

In morphology, a macroparadigm is a notion which is introduced in Carstairs (1987) to refer to a collection of paradigms which are distinct in phonologically, morphosyntactically or semantically predictable ways.

Example

Compare the following three Hungarian verbal paradigms:

stem olvas 'read' ül 'sit' mond 'say' 1 sg. olvas-ok ül-ök mond-ok 2 sg. olvas-ol ül-sz mond-asz 3 sg. olvas ül mond 1 pl. olvas-unk ül-ünk mond-unk 2 pl. olvas-tok ül-tök mond-otok 3 pl. olvas-nak ül-nek mond-anak ('s' = [s], 'sz' = [s])

Carstairs assumes that these three verbs belong to the same macroparadigm, since the variation is fully predictable. First, stems with back vowels (olvas, mond) select back vowel suffixes (-ok, -unk), while verb stems with front vowels select front vowels. This variation is due to a rule of vowel harmony. Second, if a consonant cluster of three members arises this is split up by an epenthetic vowel. Third, in the 2sg. form a stem ending in a sibilant takes the suffix -ol/-el, while other stems take -sz (or a variant).

Link

Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics

References

• Carstairs, Andrew. 1987. Allomorphy in inflexion. Beckenham: Croom Helm.
• Spencer, Andrew. 1991. Morphological Theory. Oxford:Blackwell.

Other languages

German Makroparadigma