The Regularization of Spanish Irregular Verbs

By reexamining the concept of regularity and irregularity
as applicable to the Spanish verb, a set of rules has
been devised and presented here to enable the regularization
of the vast majority of the Spanish traditionally termed
irregular verbs.
To accomplish such regularization, we have introduced
or redefined several terms. The dichotomous division of
verbs into regular and irregular is reexamined, and a third
group of verbs is formed and treated as REGULABLE, Six
constituents have been distinguished in each verb form as
followsa Stem, STEM MODIFIER, theme vowel, THEME VOWEL
MODIFIER, TENSE-MOOD-STRESS MARKER, and person-number marker.
These are used to permit the consistent use of phonologically
predictable paradigms for almost all Spanish verbs including
the vast majority of the so-called irregular verbs in the
language,
The stem and theme vowel of each verb are always constant
to enable identification and classification of all verbs from
these two constituents.
No two forms out of the fifty finite forms which constitute
each paradigm are identical (excluding defective verbs
and those with more than one paradigm); distinction between
two generated forms is never based on stress alone. Furthermore,
the stress distribution, tense and mood are always predicted by tense-mood-stress constituent.
The thesis contains seventy-four tables, five charts,
and three appendices. However, neither defective verbs
(unless the defective verbs follow a definite regulable
pattern) nor non-finite forms have been treated here.
These rules demonstrate that the apparent arbitrariness
of many Spanish verb irregularities are reasonable consequences
of phonological principles.