In
linguistics an accidental gap, also known as a gap, paradigm gap, accidental lexical gap, lexical gap, lacuna, or hole in the pattern, is a potential
word,
word sense,
morpheme, or other form that does not exist in some language despite being theoretically permissible by the
grammatical rules of that language.
For example, a word pronounced is theoretically possible in English, as it would obey English word-formation rules, but does not currently exist. Its absence is therefore an accidental gap,
in the ontologic sense of the word ''accidental'' (that is, circumstantial rather than
essential).
Accidental gaps differ from systematic gaps, those words or other forms which do not exist in a language due to the boundaries set by phonological, morphological, and other rules of that specific language. In English, a word pronounced does not and ''cannot'' exist because it has no vowels and therefore does not obey the
word-formation
In linguistics, word formation is an ambiguous term that can refer to either:
* the processes through which words can change (i.e. morphology), or
* the creation of new lexemes in a particular language
Morphological
A common method of word form ...
rules of English. This is a systematic, rather than accidental, gap.
Various types of accidental gaps exist. Phonological gaps are either words allowed by the
phonological system of a language which do not actually exist, or sound contrasts missing from one
paradigm of the phonological system itself. Morphological gaps are nonexistent words or word senses potentially allowed by the
morphological system. A semantic gap refers to the nonexistence of a word or word sense to describe a difference in
meaning seen in other sets of words within the language.
Phonological gaps
Often words that are allowed in the phonological system of a language are absent. For example, in English the
consonant cluster
In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound, is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fi ...
is allowed at the beginning of words such as ''spread'' or ''spring'' and the
syllable rime occurs in words such as ''sick'' or ''flicker''. Even so, there is no English word pronounced *. Although this potential word is phonologically
well-formed according to English
phonotactics, it happens to not exist.
The term "phonological gap" is also used to refer to the absence of a
phonemic contrast in part of the phonological system.
[ For example, Thai has several sets of ]stop consonant
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases.
The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), lip ...
s that differ in terms of voicing (whether or not the vocal cords vibrate) and aspiration (whether a puff of air is released). Yet the language has no voiced velar consonant (). This lack of an expected distinction is commonly called a "hole in the pattern".[
]
Morphological gaps
A morphological gap is the absence of a word that could exist given the morphological rules of a language, including its affix
In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ar ...
es.[ For example, in English a ]deverbal noun
Deverbal nouns are nouns that are derived from verbs or verb phrases. The formation of deverbal nouns is a type of nominalization (noun formation). Examples of deverbal nouns in English include ''organization'' (derived from the verb ''organize''), ...
can be formed by adding either the suffix ''-al'' or ''-(t)ion'' to certain verbs (typically words from Latin through Anglo-Norman French
Anglo-Norman, also known as Anglo-Norman French ( nrf, Anglo-Normaund) ( French: ), was a dialect of Old Norman French that was used in England and, to a lesser extent, elsewhere in Great Britain and Ireland during the Anglo-Norman period.
Wh ...
or Old French). Some verbs, such as ''recite'' have two related nouns, ''recital'' and ''recitation''. However, in many cases there is only one such noun, as illustrated in the chart below. Although in principle the morphological rules of English allow for other nouns, those words do not exist.
Many potential words that could be made following morphological rules of a language do not enter the lexicon. Blocking, including ''homonymy blocking'' and ''synonymy blocking'', stops some potential words. A homonym of an existing word may be blocked. For example, the word ''liver'' meaning "someone who lives" is only rarely used because the word '' liver'' (an internal organ) already exists. Likewise, a potential word can be blocked if it is a synonym of an existing word. An older, more common word blocks a potential synonym, known as ''token-blocking''. For example, the word ''stealer'' ("someone who steals") is also rarely used, because the word ''thief
Theft is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal shorthand term for some ...
'' already exists. Not only individual words, but entire word formation processes may be blocked. For example, the suffix '' -ness'' is used to form nouns from adjectives. This productive
Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proces ...
word-formation pattern blocks many potential nouns that could be formed with '' -ity''. Nouns such as *' (a potential synonym of ''calmness'') and *' (cf. ''darkness'') are unused potential words. This is known as ''type-blocking''.
A defective verb is a verb that lacks some grammatical conjugation
In linguistics, conjugation () is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection (alteration of form according to rules of grammar). For instance, the verb ''break'' can be conjugated to form the words ''break'', ...
. For example, several verbs in Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
* Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and p ...
do not have a first-person singular form in non-past tense. Although most verbs have such a form (e.g. ''vožu'' "I lead"), about 100 verbs in the second conjugation pattern (e.g. *''derz'u'' "I talk rudely"; the asterisk indicates ungrammaticality) do not appear as first-person singular in the present-future tense. Morris Halle called this defective verb paradigm an example of an accidental gap.
The similar case of unpaired word
An unpaired word is one that, according to the usual rules of the language, would appear to have a related word but does not. Such words usually have a prefix or suffix that would imply that there is an antonym, with the prefix or suffix being abse ...
s occurs where one word is obsolete or rare while another word derived
Derive may refer to:
*Derive (computer algebra system), a commercial system made by Texas Instruments
* ''Dérive'' (magazine), an Austrian science magazine on urbanism
*Dérive, a psychogeographical concept
See also
*
*Derivation (disambiguation ...
from it is more common. Examples include *''effable'' and ''ineffable'' or *''kempt'' and ''unkempt''.
Semantic gaps
A gap in semantics occurs when a particular meaning distinction visible elsewhere in the lexicon is absent. For example, English words describing family members generally show gender distinction. Yet the English word ''cousin'' can refer to either a male or female cousin.[ Similarly, while there are general terms for siblings and parents, there is no comparable common gender-neutral term for a parent's sibling, and traditionally none for a sibling's child. The separate words predicted on the basis of this semantic contrast are absent from the language, or at least from many speakers' dialects. It is possible to coin new ones (as happened with the word '' nibling''), but whether those words gain widespread acceptance in general use, or remain neologistic and resisted outside particular registers, is a matter of prevailing ]usage
The usage of a language is the ways in which its written and spoken variations are routinely employed by its speakers; that is, it refers to "the collective habits of a language's native speakers", as opposed to idealized models of how a languag ...
in each era.
See also
* Idiom (language structure)
*Lacuna model
The lacuna model is a tool for unlocking culture differences or missing "gaps" in text (in the further meaning). The lacuna model was established as a theory by Jurij Sorokin and Irina Markovina (Russia), further developed by Astrid Ertelt-Vieth a ...
* Pseudoword, a unit that appears to be a word in a language but has no meaning in its lexicon
* Semantic gap in computer programming languages and natural language processing
*Sniglet
A sniglet () is an often humorous word made up to describe something for which no dictionary word exists. Introduced in the 1980s TV comedy series '' Not Necessarily the News'', sniglets were generated and published in significant numbers, along wi ...
, described as "any word that doesn't appear in the dictionary, but should"
Notes
References
{{Reflist
Grammar
Phonology
Semantics
Linguistic morphology