| Lemma | alternative form |
|---|---|
| Categoria grammaticale | N |
| Lingua | inglese |
| Sigla | Nida (1949) |
| Titolo | Morphology. The descriptive analysis of words |
| Sinonimi | |
| Rinvii | frequency of occurrence (inglese) |
| Traduzioni | |
| Citazioni | The existence of fluctuations in forms means that certain structures are winning out over others, for alternative forms never stay in equilibrium for long. The descriptive linguist does not attempt to take into account the tendencies and trends of a language, but when he records in his data that there are alternative forms and that these exhibit a certain relative frequency of occurrence, he is touching upon the dynamics of language change. |