Suppletion
Suppletion relates paradigm cells whose forms are unexpectedly dissimilar. English go/went is a familiar example; WALS chapter 79 treats strong and unique stem alternations as its central cases. In its Oneida example, several forms for “say” occur across imperfective, stative/perfect, and perfective values. A dictionary may place them under one lexical entry even when no single piece visible on the page can serve as an invariant stem.
Calling a form suppletive is a synchronic analysis of the paradigm. Historical ancestry can explain how the forms came together, but an etymology does not remove the contemporary irregularity. WALS also notes debate over whether some verbal-number pairs belong to one paradigm or to separate lexemes. Record the author’s classification and the forms rather than presenting a disputed boundary as a fact.
Two negative markers
One semantic negation can be expressed by more than one negative morpheme. WALS chapter 143 distinguishes obligatory and optional double-negation constructions and defines what it counts: two prefixes in one word do not automatically qualify, and adjacent negative words can behave differently from separated ones. A label such as “double negative” therefore names a construction, not the logical cancellation of two negatives.
A source translation containing one English “not” may correspond to a negative word plus a verbal affix in the original. Conversely, two negative-looking items may have separate scopes. WALS records construction types across a large sample, but an individual language must be analyzed for tense, clause type, and whether one marker is optional. Do not transpose English school rules onto the source sentence.
A paradigm and a clause
Suppletion is established by comparison across forms of a lexeme; multiple negation is established by the distribution of markers in clauses. Both can be misread if only one impressive form is quoted. Keep the full paradigm or a set of contrasted clauses near the example, and cite the grammatical description that establishes the relationship.
Practice: write two columns for an apparent irregularity: “forms that belong to one paradigm” and “evidence that they belong together.” For an apparent double negative, underline every overt marker and test whether removing one is grammatical according to the source.
Modern-language examples on this page clarify a linguistic pattern. They do not establish unattested sounds or forms for an ancient language. Follow the cited sources below and keep editorial readings separate from the surviving trace.