On the Morphology of Toponyms: What Greek Inflectional Paradigms Can Teach us

Abstract The research is a contribution to the investigation of the grammatical status of toponyms from the point of view of inflectional paradigmatic morphology. By examining data from Standard Modern Greek, as well as select data from its historical development, the analysis reveals that the inflectional morphology of toponyms shows significant differences not only from that of homonymous common nouns but also from certain categories of proper names, such as anthroponyms. Specifically, I conclude that (1) toponyms must have a tantum inflectional paradigm (either pluralia or singularia ), and (2) they may present anti‐defective phenomena in their paradigm when they are compared with common nouns and other proper names. In the broader framework of Canonical Morphology, I introduce the term anti‐defectiveness to describe the second idiosyncratic property of toponyms: their capacity to circumvent the restrictions that lead to defective paradigms in other nouns of the same class.