PARADIGM TRIMMING IN BASQUE

Because Basque is a triple agreement language, its system of agreement paradigms is extremely complicated. Based on evidence that Basque, a primarily ergative language; has some active/inactive characteristics, six classes of verbs are identified; the corresponding auxiliary para digms yield a theoretical total of 336 forms possible for each tense. Nevertheless, there are certain methods by which the system is greatly simplified. Paradigm identity reduces the number of paradigms necessa ry to produce all forms. Furthermore, the paradigms do not contain all logically possible forms. It is impossible to form an auxiliary for a sentence with ''marking-overload'' characteristics (a ditransitive se ntence whose direct object is a first or second person nominal). Marki ng-overload combinations arise frequently in sentences with the causat ive verb arazi (compared to causative verb behartu in Appendix I). Mec hanisms of avoidance allow marking-overload combinations to be express ed within the existing system of paradigms. Such mechanisms are discus sed for both simple and causative sentences. Cross-linguistically, the ways in which paradigms may be trimmed and the mechanisms used to exp ress marking-overload combination's are extremely limited. It is sugge sted that these may pertain to a certain cluster of characteristics th at occur consistently in triple agreement languages.