Cover not available

In:Reorganising Grammatical Variation: Diachronic studies in the retention, redistribution and refunctionalisation of linguistic variants
Edited by Antje Dammel, Matthias Eitelmann and Mirjam Schmuck
[Studies in Language Companion Series 203] 2018
► pp. 149–174

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Ablaut reorganisation

The case of German x-o-o

 | University of Mainz
Published online: 24 October 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.203.06now
Abstract
The present paper argues for the existence of an 8th Ablaut Class in German which, comparable to the analogical emergence of Class VII in West-Germanic, evolved analogically in the course of ablaut reorganisation processes in Early New High German. Class VIII is characterised by the pattern x-o-o with a uniform exponent o in the past tense and present perfect as opposed to a relatively variable vowel in the infinitive stem (e.g. melken ‘to milk’, klimmen ‘to climb’, schwören ‘to swear’). The analogical extension of the pattern x-o-o (originally stemming from Class II) is highly functional in that it presents a partial regularisation strategy for low-frequency strong verbs (e.g. melken – malk – gemolken → molk – gemolken).
Article outline
  • 1.The rise of a new series: The 8th Ablaut Class
  • 2.Class VIII as the result of a regularisation process
    • 2.1The pattern x-o-o as a partial regularisation strategy
    • 2.2Frequency-driven regularisations
  • 3.Becoming a member of Class VIII
    • 3.1Determinants of ablaut pattern extension: The case of x-o-o
    • 3.2Restrictions for class membership
  • 4.Ablaut (re)functionalisation
  • 5.Conclusion: “Ablaut system under reconstruction”
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (48)
References
Augst, Gerhard. 1975. Wie stark sind die starken Verben? Überlegungen zur Subklassifikation der nhd. Verben. In Untersuchungen zum Morpheminventar der deutschen Gegenwartssprache, Gerhard Augst (ed.), 231–281. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bittner, Andreas. 1996. Starke ‘schwache’ Verben und schwache ‘starke’ Verben. Deutsche Verbflexion und Natürlichkeit. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan L. 1985. Morphology. A Study of the Relation between Meaning and Form [Typological Studies in Language 9]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1988. Morphology as lexical organization. In Theoretical Morphology, Approaches in Modern Linguistics, Michael Hammond & Michael Noonan (eds), 119–141. San Diego CA: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1995. Regular morphology and the lexicon. Language and Cognitive Processes 10(5): 425–455.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2003. Phonology and Language Use. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2007. Frequency of Use and the Organization of Language. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2010. Language, Usage and Cognition. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan L. & Moder, Carol. 1983. Morphological classes as natural categories. Language 59(1): 251–270.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan L. & Hopper, Paul (eds). 2001. Frequency and the Emergence of Linguistic Structure [Typological Studies in Language 45]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Corbett, Greville. 2007. Canonical typology, suppletion and possible words. Language 83: 8–42.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. Higher order exceptionality in inflectional morphology. In Expecting the Unexpected: Exceptions in Grammar, Horst Simon, & Heike Wiese (eds), 107–126. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dammel, Antje. 2003. Flexionsklassen: Funktionalität oder reine Allomorphie? Zu Ab-, Um- und Ausbau von Verbklassen im Deutschen. Magisterarbeit, Universität Mainz.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Flexionsmorphologische Irregularität – Ein graduelles Phänomen. Doch wie lassen sich Grade bestimmten? In Morphologische Irregularität. Neue Ansätze, Sichtweisen und Daten, Cornelia Stroh & Aina Urdze (eds), 1–28. Bochum: Brockmeyer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. Konjugationsklassenwandel. Prinzipien des Ab-, Um-, Aus- und Aufbaus verbalflexivischer Allomorphie in germanischen Sprachen. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. Die schönen alten Formen… Verbalflexion – Verfall oder Reorganisation? In Sprachverfall? Dynamik – Wandel – Variation [IDS-Jahrbuch 2013], Albrecht Plewnia & Andreas Witt (eds), 51–70. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dammel, Antje, Nowak, Jessica & Schmuck, Mirjam. 2010. Strong verb paradigm levelling in four Germanic languages. A category frequency approach. Special issue on Comparative linguistics: Dutch between English and German. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 22(4): 337–359.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dammers, Ulf, Hoffmann, Walter & Solms, Hans-Joachim. 1988. Grammatik des Frühneuhochdeutschen, Band 4: Flexion der starken und schwachen Verben. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Duden Grammar. 1998. Grammatik der deutschen Gegenwartssprache, Duden Band 4, 6th edn. Mannheim: Duden Verlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. Die Grammatik, Duden Band 4, 8th edn. Mannheim: Duden Verlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Durrell, Martin. 2001. Strong verb Ablaut in the West Germanic languages. In Zur Verbmorphologie germanischer Sprachen, Sheila Watts, Jonathan West & Hans-Joachim Solms (eds), 5–18. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
DWB = Der Digitale Grimm. 1852–1954/2004. [CD-Rom edition of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s Deutsches Wörterbuch, 32 vols. (DTV)]. Frankfurt: Zweitausendeins.
Fenk-Oczlon, Gertraud. 1990. Ökonomieprinzipien in Kognition und Kommunikation. In Spielarten der Natürlichkeit – Spielarten der Ökonomie. Beiträge zum 5. Essener Kolloquium über “Grammatikalisierung: Natürlichkeit und Systemökonomie”, Norbert Boretzky, Werner Enninger & Thomas Stolz (eds), 37–50. Bochum: Brockmeyer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1991. Frequenz und Kognition – Frequenz und Markiertheit. Folia Linguistica XXV(3–4): 361–394.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fox, Anthony. 1995. Linguistic Reconstruction: An Introduction to Theory and Method. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hempen, Ute. 1988. Die starken Verben im Deutschen und Niederländischen. Diachrone Morphologie. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hotzenköcherle, Rudolf. 1962. Entwicklungsgeschichtliche Grundzüge des Neuhochdeutschen. Wirkendes Wort 12: 321–331.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Köpcke, Klaus-Michael. 1999. Prototypisch starke und schwache Verben der deutschen Gegenwartssprache. In Variation und Stabilität in der Wortstruktur. Untersuchungen zu Entwicklung, Erwerb und Varietäten des Deutschen und anderer Sprachen, Matthias Butt & Nanna Fuhrhop (eds), 45–60. Hildesheim: Olms.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mailhammer, Robert. 2007a. Islands of Resilience: The history of the German strong verbs from a systemic point of view. Morphology 17(1): 77–108.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007b. The Germanic Strong Verbs. Foundations and Development of a New System. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mayerthaler, Willi. 1981. Morphologische Natürlichkeit. Wiesbaden: Athenaion.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moser, Hugo, Stopp, Hugo & Besch, Werner. 1988. Grammatik des Frühneuhochdeutschen, Vol. 4. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nowak, Jessica. 2010. Im Spannungsfeld zwischen starken und schwachen Verben. Zur Entstehung einer “8. Ablautreihe” im Deutschen, Niederländischen und Luxemburgischen. In Kontrastive Germanistische Linguistik, Teilband 2, Antje Dammel, Sebastian Kürschner & Damaris Nübling (eds), 429–472. Hildesheim: Olms.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. spinnen – sponn? – gesponnen: Die Ablautalternanz x-o-o als Alternative zum “Schwachwerden”. Jahrbuch für germanistische Sprachgeschichte, Band 4: Sprachwandel und seine Reflexe im Neuhochdeutschen, 170–185.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. Zur Legitimation einer 8. Ablautreihe. Eine kontrastive Analyse zu ihrer Entstehung im Deutschen, Niederländischen und Luxemburgischen. Hildesheim: Olms.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nübling, Damaris. 1998. Wie die Alten sungen… Zur Rolle von Frequenz und Allomorphie beim präteritalen Numerusausgleich im Frühneuhochdeutschen. Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft 17(2): 185–203.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. Prinzipien der Irregularisierung. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ronneberger-Sibold, Elke. 1988. Entstehung von Suppletion und Natürliche Morphologie. Zeitschrift für Phonetik, Sprachwissenschaft und Kommunikationsforschung 41(4): 453–462.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sendlmeier, Walter F. & Seebode, Julia (ms.). Formantkarten des deutschen Vokalsystems. <[URL]> (28 August 2017).
Solms, Hans-Joachim. 1984. Die morphologischen Veränderungen der Stammvokale der starken Verben im Frühneuhochdeutschen. Untersucht an Texten des 14. – 18. Jahrhunderts. Bonn.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stieglbauer-Schwarz, Judith. 2001. Wiegen, wägen und bewegen. Etymologie und Wortgeschichte. Frankfurt: Peter Lang:Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thornton, Anna. 2012. Overabundance (multiple forms realising the same cell): a non-canonical phenomenon in Italian verb morphology. In Morphological Autonomy: Perspectives from Romance Inflectional Morphology, Martin Maiden, John Charles Smith, Maria Goldbach & Marc-Olivier Hinzelin (eds), 358–381. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vennemann, Theo. 2000. Zur Entstehung des Germanischen. Sprachwissenschaft 25: 233–269.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Werner, Otmar. 1987a. The aim of morphological change is a good mixture – not a uniform language type. In Papers from the 7th international Conference of Historical Linguistics [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 48], Anna Giacalone Ramat, Onofrio Carruba & Guiliano Bernini (eds), 591–616. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1987b. Natürlichkeit und Nutzen morphologischer Irregularität. In Beiträge zum 3. Essener Kolloquium über Sprachwandel und seine bestimmenden Faktoren, Norbert Boretzky, Werner Enninger & Thomas Stolz (eds), 289–316. Bochum: Brockmeyer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1989. Sprachökonomie und Natürlichkeit im Bereich der Morphologie. Zeitschrift für Phonetik, Sprachwissenschaft und Kommunikationsforschung 42: 34–47.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1990. Die starken Präterita im Luxemburgischen: Ideale Analogie oder vergeblicher Rettungsversuch? German Life and Letters 43(2): 182–190.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wurzel, Wolfgang Ulrich. 1984/²2001. Flexionsmorphologie und Natürlichkeit. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue