formsprång

Formsprång is a term used in linguistic discussions, particularly within Swedish-language literature, to describe a phenomenon in inflectional morphology in which a word’s inflected forms exhibit an abrupt shift that cannot be fully explained by the language’s regular rules. The word combines form and språng (jump), signaling the idea of a leap between forms within a paradigm.

Usage and scope: The concept is not universally standardized and its exact definition varies among researchers. It is commonly invoked in descriptions of irregular or exceptional inflection, where a subset of forms “jumps” to a different stem or phonological shape than the others. Formsprång is typically discussed as a descriptive tool for highlighting departures from regular paradigms rather than as a prescriptive rule.

Characteristics: A formsprång is usually marked by inconsistency with the expected regular inflectional pattern, potential ties to historical sound changes, suppletive stems, or ablaut-like alternations, and confinement to particular word classes or tenses. It is distinguished from full suppletion in that the irregular forms do not consistently require entirely different roots, but their development cannot be fully predicted by the general rule set.

Examples: In a hypothetical language, the past tense of a verb might be formed by a morphophonemic change that is not predictable from the present tense, constituting a formsprång. Another instance might involve nouns whose plural is formed with an irregular stem alternating in a way not deducible from the regular pattern.

Relation to other concepts: Formsprång is related to suppletion, irregular inflection, and morphophonology, but emphasizes abrupt leaps within a paradigm rather than complete stem replacement.

See also: inflection, morphophonology, suppletion, ablaut.