144
the functional contribution of the stem form versproch
to the verb form
versprochen
:59
({U-form, monophthongal, short,
...},{o -A B L , a-ABL, . . . } )
All in all, versproch
is characterised as a short, monophthongal U-form of a
stem lexeme that exhibits both o-ablaut and o-ablaut. All the categories in-
volved are defined in formal (expression related) terms. Now consider
ver-
sproch
as it occurs in versprochen.
Given the above findings on the form-
function-relation, the (formal) morphological characterisation of the stem form
is sufficient to determine the (functional) categorisation of the verb form
versprochen
(which is a past participle). This may be shown as follows.60
(i) As has been established in Section 3, simple ablaut serves to mark past
forms, full ablaut serves to mark finite past forms.
(ii) versproch
is characterised as a U-form and also as a form of a lexeme
that belongs to
o-ABL
(a class of stem lexemes) and to
CLASS III/IV
in par-
ticular. It follows that
versproch
is an ablaut form (and not a base form)
and, moreover, that it is an o-ablaut form.
(iii) From (i) and (ii) it follows that versprochen
is a past form.
(iv) versproch
is characterised as a form of a lexeme that belongs to
o-ABL
(a
class of stem lexemes). This means that the stem lexeme of which
ver-
sproch
is a form has an o-ablaut form as well. By (i), ablaut forms that
exhibit o-ablaut (thus full ablaut) serve to mark finite past forms. More-
over, because of the priority of more specific markers, the finite past
forms of the verb of which versprochen
is a form cannot fail to show the
specific marker (viz. o-ablaut). It follows that the stem form versproch
is
prevented from occurring in finite past forms.
(v) From (iii) and (iv) it follows that, due to the occurrence of versproch,
the
verb form
versprochen
qualifies as a non-finite past form, which is to
say, as a past participle.
59 Such pairs (or rather sets containing such pairs) are called morphological markings by
Lieb (1983: 179).
60 A discussion of the theoretical status of form-function-relations is well beyond the scope
of the present paper. It may be suggested, however, that in inflectional morphology ‘inter-
pretative functions’ associated with morphological functions should be recognised (analo-
gous to semantic functions associated with morphological functions in derivational mor-
phology, Lieb 1983: 241). For a different approach see Lieb (1992); Lieb accounts for
form-function-relations by means of ‘system links’ (“Systemverbindungen”) between
expression-related and functional systems of morphological categories and in addition
between expression-related and functional systems of syntactic categories.
145
6
Conclusion
Ablaut has been apostrophised as “one of the classic chestnuts of morphologi-
cal analysis” (Anderson 1988: 157); certainly, ablaut — and, more generally,
‘internal inflection’ — has turned out to be a hard nut to crack for many a
morphological theory. However, an analysis based on an item-and-paradigm-
model may go a long way towards overcoming those problems that have
hampered earlier analyses. In this paper, 1 hope to have shown that the
model’s application to ablaut in German turns out to be rewarding.
Many studies of ablaut in German have focused on the question of how
the forms of a strong verb can be derived if a certain distinguished (basic)
form (usually the infinitive) is given. But again and again, the outcome of such
attempts has been found to be unsatisfactory (for critical retrospect see Augst
1975, and, most recently, Kopeke 1999). Since attempts at providing a sys-
tematic account of ablaut failed, the contention won ground that there is no
system of ablaut in Modem German. Negative results may partly be blamed on
the theoretical approaches that have been employed, but also partly, on the
way the task to be accomplished had been construed.
For languages like German, it is in general not possible to ‘predict’ the
inflectional forms of a word given only its base form. As regards nouns, dic-
tionaries have to add information on declension class membership (as well as
on gender) notwithstanding the fact that the make-up of a word’s base form
may sometimes provide more or less reliable hints as to what inflectional class
the word belongs to. But by no means does it follow that there are no regulari-
ties underlying the formation of inflectional forms (cf. B. Wiese 2000). The
situation found with verbs, and with strong verbs in particular, is not basically
different. Accordingly, the present account proposes a system of six inflec-
tional classes (‘ablaut classes’,
cl ass es
I, II, m/iv, v, vi, vn) that reconstructs
the traditional system of gradation classes but is defined on a purely syn-
chronic basis.
If there is something special about strong verb stems’ membership in in-
flectional classes, then it is the high degree to which membership is predict-
able indeed on the basis of expression-related properties of base forms alone.
There are general principles of ablaut in Contemporary Standard German (in a
nutshell: ablaut is change of quality type or complexity type) that impose
heavy restrictions on the selection of ablaut classes. Furthermore, considera-
tions of inflectional class markedness permit it to single out what is the un-
marked option given a stem’s base (thus to establish a stem’s ‘default ablaut
class’); membership in non-default-classes is subject to rigorous restrictions,