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.[1] For example, a word pronounced /zeɪ̯k/ 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 /pfnk/ does not and cannot exist because it has no vowels and therefore does not obey the word-formation 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.
^Crystal, David (2003). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 0-6312-2664-8.
In linguistics an accidentalgap, also known as a gap, paradigm gap, accidental lexical gap, lexical gap, lacuna, or hole in the pattern, is a potential...
from another language, in either case yielding an accidentalgap, specifically a morphological gap. Other unpaired words were never part of a pair; their...
proteins Gap, accidentalgap, or lexical gap, a word or other form that does not exist in a language but could Gap, a kind of ellipsis, e.g.: Gap is an instance...
that has not been studied but has potential to be studied Lacuna or accidentalgap, in linguistics, a word that does not exist but which would be permitted...
Emenau (1931) reports no tokens of /i˞˞/, but suggests this is an accidentalgap. Hockings, Paul. Counsel from the ancients: A study of Badaga proverbs...
have been a perfectly acceptable word in English but is not due to an accidentalgap, were presented to children. The experimenter would then prompt the...
subjects need to fix a local gap in performance, maybe due to external pressure. They initiate action to fix the gap and accidentally undermine each other's...
speculated that the real reason Bradley halted Patton was not fear of accidental clashes with the British, but knowledge that, with powerful German formations...
differences in behavior, living conditions and structures, and processes. Accidentalgap Dellinger B (1995) Finnish Views of CNN Television News: A Critical...
[z], and [əz] (cats [kæts], dogs [dɒgz], and horses [hoɹsəz]). An accidentalgap is a phenomenon in which a form that could plausibly be found in a given...
Pronunciation, page 2, Suffixes 371, 372 Lack of final [ʒ] is presumably an accidentalgap; there is also no suffix j. Lack of final [h] reflects English phonotactics...
ǀ, ǂ, ǁ Kwadi ǂ and ǁ not found with all manners, but these may be accidentalgaps, as Kwadi is poorly attested 3 releases, ǀ, ǃ, ǁ Sandawe, Hadza, Xhosa...
clusters attested from only a single root, there are certain to be accidentalgaps in this list. /a/ is much less common than /i/ or /u/, the opposite...
clearance to replace or renovate the worst of neighbourhoods. The term 'accidental landlord' is used for landlords who do not initially intend to become...
French began to borrow from both Canadian and American English to fill accidentalgaps in the lexical fields of government, law, manufacturing, business and...
unions complained of pollution within the plant. In 1981, a worker was accidentally splashed with phosgene as he was carrying out a maintenance job of the...
during a crucial hockey game. This results in Riley performing poorly and accidentally hurting Grace, getting her sent to the penalty box. Horrified, a frenzied...
preliminary investigation and autopsy concluded that Johnson's death was accidental, his family had a private pathologist conduct a second autopsy which concluded...
hosts the event, which airs on ABC. In an infamous moment, La La Land is accidentally announced as Best Picture winner, after presenters Warren Beatty and...
990 was being flown in a Boeing 767-366ER aircraft with registration SU-GAP, named Thuthmosis III after a pharaoh from the 18th Dynasty. The aircraft...
dense material surrounding the fissile material). Still, the core was accidentally put into a critical configuration. Physicists Harry Daghlian, in the...
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