Morphological doublets in Polish

This paper explores morphological doublets—forms like learned/learnt—through a framework of competing components within the morphological system. Focusing on Polish genitive singular suffixes -a and -u, the study argues that these suffixes arise from semantically driven Family Resemblance Components rather than simple defaults. Diminutivisation introduces competition between base noun semantics and suffix preferences, resulting in doublets. The analysis suggests that morphological variation reflects cognitive mechanisms for organizing linguistic memory, rather than exceptions or irregularities. Drawing parallels with English past tense forms, the paper challenges rigid models of morphological function and highlights the role of semantic structure and speaker uncertainty. Ultimately, it proposes that morphological doublets emerge from dynamic interactions between competing modules in the linguistic system(AI generated abstract, Copilot)