Analogical feature transmission within an antonym schemaThe case of the suffix -hAtÓ

Abstract This paper aims to account for the seemingly idiosyncratic properties of the Hungarian derivational suffix - hAtÓ , occurring, for example, in olvas-ható ‘readable’, büntet-hető ‘punishable’. The suffix is a conglutination of two deverbal suffixes, the possibility suffix -hat , and the suffix -Ó of present participles, but does not share the selectional and distributional properties of its components. It is claimed that - hAtÓ acquired its unexpected features analogically from its counterpart with the opposite meaning, the suffix -hAtAtlAn , in antonym pairs such as olvas-ható ‘readable’ – olvas-hatatlan ‘unreadable’, büntet-hető ‘punishable’ – büntet-hetetlen ‘unpunishable’. In modern Hungarian, the conditions of analogical feature transfer would not be satisfied as V- hAtÓ complexes are more than twice as frequent as V- hAtAtlAn forms. However, the V- hAtAtlAn construction appeared several centuries earlier than the V- hAtÓ form, and its preponderance over V- hAtÓ is evident throughout the Old Hungarian period.