136
4.3 Ablaut class markedness
In the majority of cases knowledge of the base form alone suffices to deter-
mine to which ablaut class a stem belongs. Usually, there are two or at most
three classes that have to be taken into account. Let me refer to stems that
have I-bases as I-base stems, to stems that have not as non-l-base stems.
Similarly, I will use the terms A-base stem and U-base stem. Now consider
stems with monophthongal bases: I-base stems belong to
CLASS II, ill/lV ,
or
V;
A-base stems belong to
CLASS VI
or
VII,
and U-base stems belong to
CLASS v
or
VII
(cf. Table 6). Stems with diphthongal I-bases belong to
CLASS I;
only
one /ai/-base stem is in
CLASS Vll.
Stems with diphthongal U-bases belong to
CLASS II
or
CLASS VII.
These assignments derive from the general formal
characteristics of ablaut in German, which have been discussed in Section 2.
Moreover, the ablaut classes to be considered are not of the same rank.
They differ with respect to inflectional class markedness (Wurzel 1989; cf.
also Durrell 2001). With I-base stems, the major division is whether «-ablaut
is applicable or not. Membership in
«-ABL
is the marked option. Note that:
— The majority of I-base stems do not show «-ablaut; they belong to
NO-
FULL-ABL
and thus to
CLASS I
or
II
according as the base is diphthongal or
monophthongal.
— The internal variability of the class
NO-FULL-ABL'>NO-FULL-ABL
is much greater than
that of the class
«-ABL.
«-ablaut is not found with bases that show ‘con-
spicuous’ vocalism, to wit, (i) with diphthongal bases, (ii) with bases in
rounded front vowels, or (iii) with bases that have long vowels before
voiceless consonants (other than /t/). But all types of front vowels that
occur in bases of strong verb stems at all appear in bases of
NO-FULL-ABL
stems, cf.
bi e gl
(/i:/),
s c h in d l
(III),
hebl
(/e:/),
f e c h t l
(Id),
g ä r l
(I
s
:/),
l ü g l
(/y:/),
s c h w ö r l
(/
o
:/),
e r l ö s c h l
(led), and
r e it l
(/ai/); there are
no bases in M or loil. On the other hand, if I-base stems show a-ablaut,
the base vowel is i or c.48
— A considerable number of stems have abandoned
«-ABL
for
NO-FULL-
ABL.
An argument against the unmarked status of
NO-FULL-ABL
might be based on
the fact that it is only
CLASS III/IV
stems that take advantage of the full poten-
tial of form differentiation. Only these stems show double ablaut (that is,
simple and full ablaut): only these stems employ two distinct ablaut alterna-
48 It is i if, and only if, it is short and followed by a nasal (thus hi). Otherwise it is e (i.e.,
/e:/ or /el); in addition there is one /e:/-base stem
(GEBÄRL).
For
srrz\ Binx,
and
lie g
l ,
cf.
Section 2.7.
137
tions in forming ‘past participle stems’ and ‘primary past stems’, respectively.
But then having this property means not to conform to the pattern of stem form
distinctions found with weak verbs (whereas the unmarked status of
NO-FULL-
ABL
is confirmed as it is precisely the stems in this class that follow the model
of the productive, weak class in as far as they do not show a distinction be-
tween ‘past participle stems’ and ‘primary past stems’).
As regards non-I-base stems, by similar considerations the unmarked op-
tion is /-ablaut (i.e., membership in
CLASS
vil, cf. Wurzel 1970: 79) while
«-ablaut or, again, a-ablaut are the marked options. The majority of non-I-base
stems belong to
CLASS
vn; as regards «-ablaut, there are rigid restrictions on
the make-up of the bases that will be noted below.
I take it, then, that membership in
NO-FULL-ABL
and in i-ABL
are the stan-
dard (unmarked or ‘default’) options for I-base stems and non-I-base stems,
respectively. Thus, in order to determine ablaut class membership all that has
to be done is to single out those stems that take the marked option. But, mem-
bership in non-default-classes is subject to rather restrictive conditions. The
majority of stems that meet these conditions do belong to these classes indeed;
only minority groups belong to one of the default-classes nevertheless, and it is
only the latter groups that set bounds to an attempt to derive ablaut class
membership from the make-up of bases.
4.4 I-base stems and ablaut classes
In the unmarked case, I-base stems belong to
NO-FULL-ABL.
The marked
option is to have «-ablaut. It is true, there are two subclasses of
NO-FULL-ABL
(CLASS I
and
CLASS II)
but the division in terms of the diphthongal-
monophthongal-distinction is straightforward. All /ai/-, /i:/-, /y:/-, /o:/-, and
/oe/-base stems are in
NO-FULL-ABL
(except
HEISSL, CLASS VII);
these are:49
— /a i/-b a se s,
c l a s s
i
:
SCHEINL, (ER/VER)BLEICHL, GLEICH1-, STREICHS WEICHL, SCHLEICH1-,
s c h w e i g
1-,
s t e i g
l ,
g r e i f
1-,
k n e i f
l ,
p f e i f
\
s c h l e i f
1-,
b l e i b
l ,
r e i b
l ,
s c h r e i b
1-,
t r e i b
l ,
p r e i s
l ,
w e i s
l ,
b e i s s
l ,
r e i s s
\
s c h e i s s
l ,
s c h m e i s s
l ,
LEID1-, SCHNEID1-, MEIDL, SCHEI
d
\ GLEIT1-, REITL, SCHREI
t
S STREIT1-,
GEDEIH1-, LEIHL, SCHREIL, SPEIL, ZEIHL
49 The following lists cannot be definite as there are a few borderline cases. With a number
of verbs, judgements concerning acceptability of strong forms do not coincide, cf.
(BE)DINGL, KÜR
l
/(ER)KIESl , MELK , SCHLEISS\ SPLEISSL; see reference grammars for details,
e.g., Curme (1924: 300-315); cf. also Aldenhoff (1961). However, even these peripheral
cases, if included, fit into the classes as characterised in the text.