My analysis refines our understanding of suppletion types and shows the logic behind suppletive distributions. I contextualize semantic factors in the relationships between synchronic types and diachronic sources. I apply semantic maps to well-known cases of suppletion in addition to underreported and previously unreported patterns, including Hungarian data displaying a previously unknown type of suppletion-non-aligned overlapping suppletion-where forms shared by separate lexemes belong to distinct parts of their paradigms. Specifically, semantic distance and other semantic factors facilitate explanations of suppletive patterns that earlier studies focusing on typological and morphological considerations could not account for.
My analysis shows that the development of suppletion is more orderly than commonly believed. This paper examines the semantic factors involved in three crucial questions about suppletion in verbs: what verbs develop suppletion, what verbs contribute to suppletive paradigms, and how roots are distributed in suppletive paradigms.
