Analogical Predictions of the Past Tense in Finnish

Abstract

In this chapter I will apply the analogical approach to the past tense in standard Finnish. I first discuss in general terms how the past tense is derived from the present tense stem. Except for one important context, the past tense is completely predictable. For this one non-deterministic context, I discuss the variation that is found in samplings of Finnish texts as well as linguistic descriptions of this variation. I then show how an analogical approach can predict the synchronic behavior of this important class of verbs — and not only for frequent verbs found in textual samplings, but also for rarely occurring verbs. Finally, I show how an analogical approach can account for the complex problem of historical drift in the Finnish past tense.