134
tion 2. Names of example lexemes are put into the boxes; the quality types to
which the pertinent bases regularly belong are noted.
The cross-classification provides six stem classes that correspond to tra-
ditional classes of strong verbs (as indicated by the Roman numerals that are
put into the boxes). Formally, these stem classes are identified as the following
intersections of classes:
CLASSi
CLASS II
CLASS I1I/IV
CLASS V
CLASS VI
CLASS VII
=df NO-O-ABL n NO-FULL-ABL
=df o-ABL n NO-FULL-ABL
=df O-ABL n O-ABL
=df NO-O-ABL n a-ABL
=df NO-O-ABL n M-ABL
=df NO-O-ABL n /-ABL
The defined classes of stem lexemes will be referred to as ablaut classes *b
The two combinations that remain
(o-ABL
n
/-ABL
and
o-ABL
n
a-ABL,
cf. the
darkly shaded boxes in Table 6) do not correspond to traditional verb classes,
and in fact, by the regularities of ablaut in German discussed above these
intersections should be empty.46 47 Ablaut classes may be more or less similar;
e.g., by the usual numbering,
c l a s s
u i
/
i v
is placed between
c l a s s
ii
and
CLASS
v, and rightly so, as it shares o-ablaut with the former and o-ablaut with
the latter. Since ablaut classes are introduced as derived classes, their
(dis-)similarities are accounted for in a straightforward manner.
The apparent diversity of present stem vocalism as well as particularities
of ‘present stem formation’ should not detract from the high degree of regular-
ity of ablaut patterns. Quite generally, inflectional classes are to be defined in
terms of the formation of derived forms, not in terms of the make-up of base
46 In addition, minor classes may be identified if necessary: for instance,
c l a ss
III and
CLASS IV are subclasses of CLASS m/iv.
cl a ss
h i
stems have short, sonorant I-bases (cf.
Section 2.5, supra); these stems have /a/-ablaut forms. CLASS IV comprises the remaining
bases; these stems have /a:/-ablaut forms. Similarly, CLASS vn may be divided into CLASS
vnb (stems that have U-bases) and CLASS Vila (the remaining ones), cf. Paul (1989: 251).
Classes of verbs may be introduced as derived classes (Lieb 1983: 173); a verb of the first
class of strong verbs is a verb the stem of which belongs to CLASS I etc.
47 The first ‘case vide’ (o-ABL n /-ABL) is indeed empty, o-ablaut as a rule requires mon-
ophthongal I-bases, which, in German, do not permit /-ablaut. o-ABL n u-
a b l
should be
empty, too, since in German distinct ablaut forms ordinarily belong to distinct quality types.
However, if SCHWÖRL and perhaps
a n h e b l
are exceptions to this rule (cf. Section 2.7),
then they belong here; though exceptional, gradations involving both o-ablaut and //-ablaut
would not break the system.
135
forms (Wurzel 1984b: 68). Ablaut classes make no exception, pace Hook
(1968) and others.
4.2 Ablaut class membership
Statements that assign stems to ablaut classes may be understood as elemen-
tary characterisations. From this vantage point, the stem
SPRECHL
has the
ablaut forms sproch and sprach because it belongs to
CLASS Ill/iv.
On the
other hand, knowledge of a stem’s primary forms is usually sufficient to de-
termine its ablaut class even if their functional types are not given: as a rule,
assigning a stem to an ablaut class does not presuppose that its forms’ func-
tions are taken into consideration. Consider the stem
f e c h t l
and its primary
forms fecht and focht. On account of its vowel, fecht is not a possible ablaut
form; so it must be a base form, and consequently, the o-form focht is an
ablaut form, and the only one at that. Thus this stem exhibits o-ablaut and only
o-ablaut; consequently it belongs to
CLASS II.
However, Wurzel (1984a: 661) points to cases of ‘inverse alternations’.
Both /i:/—>/o:/ and /a:/—+/i:/ are inconspicuous alternations (viz. cases of o-
ablaut and /-ablaut, respectively), but Wurzel cites
STOSSENw
and
LIEGENW,
which apparently show the inversions of these patterns:
STOSSENw
has present
forms in loJ and past forms in /i:/ and
LIEGENW
has present forms in I'd and
past forms in /a:/. Richard Wiese (1996: 130), who adduces
STOSSENw
and
BIETENW,
even maintains that “all types of bidirectional relations between
vowels” are to be found with ablaut in German. As Table 5 shows this is not
the case. As a rule, ablaut patterns are not reversible. The examples to prove
the opposite are not typical, to say the least.
As for
LIEGl ,
by the above account (which adapts a proposal of Wurzel
1970: 77), ablaut proceeds on the basis of leg (giving lag by /e:/—►/a:/-
altemation) while lieg is due to (exceptional) ^//-alternation. Whatever analy-
sis is espoused,
LIEGL
shows aberrant present tense formation and is, at best,
an exception but does not provide evidence for arbitrary inversions of ablaut.
The comparison of
b i e t l
and
s t o s s l
also draws on rather peripheral cases.
(STOSS
l
is the only stem that has an o-base and an /-ablaut form; on
BIETL
see
note 25, supra.) Even if these exceptions stand up to scrutiny, it is significant
that it holds good (at least for the overwhelming majority of strong verb stems,
allowing for one or two exceptions, if any): given a stem’s primary forms, its
ablaut class is fixed, that is, only expression-related properties of stem forms
have to be resorted to in order to determine a stem’s ablaut class.