Syncretism
Syncretism is the situation where one morphological form corresponds to two or more morphosyntactic descriptions.
Examples
E.g. English bet (in I bet you ten pounds) is syncretic between Present and Past, as seen in comparison with I give/gave you ten pounds.
Origin
The term has originally been used in the sense of "combining different religions", and was transferred to linguistics in the 19th century.
Links
Syncretism database of the Surrey Morphology Group
References
- Baerman, Matthew & Brown, Dunstan & Corbett, Greville G. 2005. The syntax-morphology interface: A study of syncretism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Other languages
- German Synkretismus
- Russian синкретизм
