Form and Function of Verbal Ablaut
in Contemporary Standard German
Bernd Wiese
Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim
D
e d ic a t e d
t o
P
e t e r
E
is e n b e r g
ON THE OCCASION OF HIS SIXTY-FIFTH BIRTHDAY
Contents
1 Introduction
1.1 Umlaut and ^//-alternation
1.2 Ablaut patterns
1.3 Morphological models
1.4 Stems and stem forms
2 Forms of ablaut
2.1 Vowel alternations
2.2 Expression types
2.3 Change of quality type and change of complexity type
2.4 Ablaut vowels
2.5 Change of quantity type
2.6 Simple ablaut and full ablaut
2.7 Special present tense formations
3 Functions of ablaut
3.1 Functional types
3.2 Syncretisms
3.3 Form-function-relation
4 Inflectional classes
4.1 Ablaut classes
4.2 Ablaut class membership
4.3 Ablaut class markedness
4.4 I-base stems and ablaut classes
4.5 Non-I-base stems and ablaut classes
5 Ablaut: an integrated view
6 Conclusion
Abstract. The multiple gradations of German strong verbs are but manifestations of a
rather uncomplicated system. There is a small number of ways to make up ablaut forms;
Published in: Sackmann, Robin (ed.): Explorations in Integrational Linguistics. Four essays
on German, French, and Guaraní. - Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins, 2008.
pp. 97-151(Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 285)
98
these types of formation are identifiable in formal terms and, what is more, they have
definite functions as morphological markers. Using classifications of stem forms according
to quality, complexity and quantity of vowels, three types of operations involved in ablaut
formation are identified. Ablaut always includes a change of quality type or a change of
complexity type, and in addition it may include a change of quantity type. Ablaut forms are
clearly distinguished as against bases (and against each other): their vocalism meets a
defined standard of dissimilarity. On this basis, gradations are collected into inflectional
classes that are defined in strictly synchronic terms. These classes continue the historical
seven classes known from reference grammars. For the majority of strong verbs, member-
ship in these classes (and thus ablaut) is predictable.
1
Introduction*
1.1 Umlaut and di-alternation
Stem changes that function as morphological markers play an important role in
the grammar of Contemporary Standard German (henceforth, ‘German’ for
short). German verbs may have up to five stems exhibiting different stem
vowels. As for ‘strong’ verbs such as
SPRECHENW,
traditional custom distin-
guishes three primary tense stems {primäre Tempusstämme, cf. Fabricius-
Hansen 1977: 194). Forms that show these stems are (among others) the
infinitive (
sprech-en), the form of the 1st person singular indicative of the past
(sprach) and the past participle (ge-sproch-en), respectively.* 1 In descriptive
grammars, these three verb forms are used as ‘principal parts’; as a rule, these
forms should suffice to enable users to derive all forms of the verb under
discussion. It is implied that the derivation of additional stems conforms to
regular patterns. As exemplified by the secondary stems of
SPRECHENW
(viz.
the secondary present tense stem
sprich, which occurs in the 2nd and 3rd
person singular indicative of the present and in the imperative, and the secon-
dary past tense stem spräch, which occurs in the subjunctive of the past),
these regular patterns of stem formation are e/i-alternation and umlaut.
Umlaut may be construed as form alternation (“Formabwechslung”,
Kruszewski 1881: 19) between basic forms in back vowels and derived forms
in front vowels (hence the involved vowel change is characterised as “front-
Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprach-
wissenschaft, Typologie und Universalienforschung (ZAS), Berlin, in November 1997, and
at the Generative Grammatik des Südens (GGS) 2004 conference, Mannheim, in May 2004.
Special thanks to Kate Chapman for stylistic help.
Author’s address: Bemd Wiese, Institut fur Deutsche Sprache, R5, 6-13, 68161 Mannheim,
Germany. E-mail: wiese@ids-mannheim.de
1 Forms of words (and forms of stems) are given in standard orthography using lowercase
letters. Names of words and lexemes appear in small capitals and are superscripted with lW’
and ,L’, respectively. In tables, superscripts may be dropped for readability.
99
ing”, Zwicky 1967). As every vowel or diphthong that allows umlaut has a
unique umlauted counterpart (and vice versa) there is no need to list umlauted
secondary stems. Given that the primary present and past tense stems of, say,
FAHRENW
are fahr and fuhr, and provided that secondary stem formation is
regular, it is derivable that the secondary stems are führ and führ.
As concerns primary stems in vowels that cannot undergo umlaut (as ex-
emplified by sprech), secondary stems may be formed by means of e/i-
altemation. «//-alternation is similar to umlaut as it constitutes a change ‘to-
wards /’, too. In the case of umlaut it is back vowels (i.e., ‘/-distant vowels’)
that alternate with the related front vowels (‘/-close or /-like vowels’); in the
case of «//-alternation it is front vowels (viz. « or, in rare cases, ö or ä) that
alternate with /. The ‘target’ of the change is again unique.2 3 It is true, some
verbs lack one or both of the secondary stems. However, if secondary stems
are formed at all, their formation for the most part conforms to a uniform and
predictable pattern/
1.2 Ablaut patterns
While formation of secondary stems conforms to regular patterns, vowel
alternations between primary stems do not seem to fit into a comparably sys-
tematic picture. Traditionally, these alternations are taken care of in terms of
ablaut patterns or gradations (‘Ablautreihen’). The verb
SPRECHENW
would be
a member of the fourth class of strong verbs, the gradation of which is e-a-o
(which provides the principal parts sprechen-sprach-gesprochen). If each and
every variant of vowel change between the three primary stems of German
verbs is to be taken into account, nearly forty patterns have to be established,
many of which are found with one verb only. In addition, there are a number
of irregular verbs (‘anomalies’, Grimm 1870: 908, Paul 1917: 259-276) that
show vowel alternations. Excluding these, by strong verb I shall refer to any
verb that has stem formation by vowel change but does not have past tense
and/or past participle stem formation by means of a dental suffix (as do the
weak verbs).4 Lists of (stems of) strong verbs are given in Sections 4.4 and
4.5, infra.
2 The target vowel of «//-alternation is short ‘if possible’ (cf. Section 2.6, infra).
3 On the formation of secondary past tense stems see Eisenberg (1997). There are some
deviations in subjunctive formation; details and conditioning factors are discussed in Paul
(1920: 211-212).
4 This also excludes the past-present verbs (
w is se n
w, DÜRFENW, KÖNNENW, MÖGENW,
MÜSSENW, SOLLENw, and in addition
w o l l e n
w, which, from a synchronic point of view,
belongs to this group), the irregular weak verbs (‘Rückumlautverben’), and the so-called
‘mixed verbs’, which show partly strong forms and partly weak forms. SEINW ‘to be’,