How to Derive Allomorphy: A Case Study from Czech

The paper discusses a three-way allomorphic pattern of neuter gender stems in Czech. We argue that there are two surface alternations involved in the three stem pattern, i.e. a-e and t zero, and that the two alternations are driven by two distinct mechanisms, i.e. suppletion and regular phonological computation respectively. We postulate two suppletive stem building suffixes that are lexically connected via pointers (Vanden Wyngaerd 2018). We argue that the default a initial suffix spells out the neuter gender and its suppletive e initial variant is a portmanteau morpheme of the (neuter) gender and (singular) number. We further propose that the suppletive suffix is stored with a floating consonant that does not surface word finally due to regular phonological computation.