Accidental Gaps?

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Ever Student

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As you know some new words called accidental gaps come into language and obey the phonological rules of the language- they include native phonemes in a permitted order- but have no meaning like BIK or unsad. Some of them currently used as a meaningful word like "argumentation". I looked up such a word in old dictionaries and haven't come across it yet.
Could be "argumentation" term considered as an accidental gap at that time?
 

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As you know some new words called accidental gaps come into language and obey the phonological rules of the language- they include native phonemes in a permitted order- but have no meaning like BIK or unsad. Some of them currently used as a meaningful word like "argumentation". I looked up such a word in old dictionaries and haven't come across it yet.
Could be "argumentation" term considered as an accidental gap at that time?
"An accidental gap is a non-existing word which is expected to exist given the hypothesized morphological rules of a particular language."
Accidental gap - Glottopedia

There's no accidental gap for 'BIK'. One could say that 'unsad' is one of these words, since 'unhappy' exists. But 'sad' is the marked antonym, so it would be less likely to have a modifier like 'un'.

Yes, I think 'argumentation' might have been one - but I haven't done the research on the history of the word.
The following words do exist: documentation, commentation, so prima facie, 'argumentation' was possible, and a gap.

If it is, then the following are also accidental gaps: *agreementation, *developmentation ...
 

Tdol

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How about 'misunderestimate'?
 

Raymott

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How about 'misunderestimate'?
I think that's a case of accidentally falling into a gap that doesn't exist!
 

Ever Student

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And also is expected to exist given the phonological rules. As I read before it was focused on "phonological rules". For example, BIK was a brand name before and called now an accidental gap. And it is pronounced as "beak" in English.
 

Linguist__

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And also is expected to exist given the phonological rules. As I read before it was focused on "phonological rules". For example, BIK was a brand name before and called now an accidental gap. And it is pronounced as "beak" in English.

Bic is the name, as in the ballpoint pens. Also, I pronounce it to rhyme with 'sick'. It is common for brand names to become the name of the object. Examples include:

'hoover' - vacuum cleaner in American English
'tippex' - the correct name is 'correction fluid'. The white liquid used to correct ink. Commonly called 'white-out' in the US, I think?
'tannoy' - 'PR' is the correct word, I think.

I have never heard of 'accidental gap', so I can't say whether these are accidental gaps or whether it's just popularity.
 

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I had also never heard of accidental gaps before I looked it up. I don't think it's reasonable to assume that all base words should have a complete range of derivatives.

If BIK (or Bic) is one of these words, then the term "accidental gap" is obviously used for different things. In fact this site gives the definition of a completely different concept:
accidental gap

A possible word which is phonologically well formed in every respect but which happens not to exist, such as /blik/ in English. Cf. systematic gap. Swadesh (1935).
Accidental Gap from A Dictionary of Phonetics and Phonology

So, 'blik' is an accidental gap in English, but 'lbik' wouldn't be.
Normally these are called (phonologically) possible or impossible words in a certain language.

'Accidental gap' seems more useful for the original definition, and a quick Google search tends to suggest it is usually understood that way.
 

Ever Student

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I had also never heard of accidental gaps before I looked it up. I don't think it's reasonable to assume that all base words should have a complete range of derivatives.

If BIK (or Bic) is one of these words, then the term "accidental gap" is obviously used for different things. In fact this site gives the definition of a completely different concept:
accidental gap

A possible word which is phonologically well formed in every respect but which happens not to exist, such as /blik/ in English. Cf. systematic gap. Swadesh (1935).
Accidental Gap from A Dictionary of Phonetics and Phonology

So, 'blik' is an accidental gap in English, but 'lbik' wouldn't be.
Normally these are called (phonologically) possible or impossible words in a certain language.

'Accidental gap' seems more useful for the original definition, and a quick Google search tends to suggest it is usually understood that way.
It's interesting, as my source is "An Introduction to Language", I come across somethings new like "accidental gaps" in phonological chapter. In case, I haven't invented anything yet.
 

jamel

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accidental gaps are not new.The are found in every language.It would be difficult if we ignore them.For example,"ugly" is an adjective as we know,but howcanwe makea verb describing the adjectivity of it?Indeed,it is by coming back to accidental gaps,we cansay uglify,and also uglification.
 
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