Topics in Canonical Morphological Typology (3/3)

Anna M. Thornton (Université de L'Aquila)
A canonical typology of overabundance

I define overabundance as the situation in which two (or more) inflectional forms are available to realize the same cell in an inflectional paradigm. In this talk I will give a general introduction to overabundance, using the Canonical Typology framework. After a short introduction to the concept and to the terminology used in various scientific traditions to name it, I will introduce and discuss some criteria to establish a canonical typology of overabundance. Studies of several cases from different languages will be used to illustrate more and less canonical cases of overabundance.