The simple and the periphrastic past in spoken (Valencian) Catalan as evidence against zero in inflectional morphology

Abstract We analyze the substitution of the simple past by the periphrastic go -past in spoken Valencian Catalan. Corpus data show that this substitution is especially prominent in 1/3 sg forms which are at the same time the least morphologically transparent ones. From this observation, we derive a relation between lack of transparency and the need for a periphrastic form. Based on synchronic and diachronic arguments, we reject the possibility of zero exponence and processes, such as fusion and obliteration, as explanation for the mismatch between morpho-syntactic structural complexity and reduced morpho-phonological realization. We argue instead for a spanning approach that can correctly derive lack of transparency and analyticisation avoiding unnecessary mechanisms.