We investigate the complexity of nominal plural allomorphy in ten Germanic languages from a contrastive and diachronic perspective. Focusing on one language family allows us to develop multidimensional criteria to measure morphological complexity and to compare different diachronical drifts. We introduce a three-step complexity metric, involving (1) a quantitative step, (2) a qualitative step, and (3) a validation step comparing the results from step (1) and (2) to actual language use. In this article, we apply the method’s two first steps to the plural allomorphy of our sample languages. Our criteria include for (1) the number of allomorphs and for (2) iconicity in form-meaning relationship, the basis of allomorph assignment, and the direction of determination between stem and suffix. Our approach reveals Faroese as the most complex language and English as the simplest one.

We investigated strong-verb paradigm leveling in German, Dutch, English, and Swedish, and found significant differences in ablaut leveling and class change towards the weak conjugation. Swedish favors ablaut patterns retaining a difference between the preterite and the past participle, while German, Dutch, and English favor a common vowel for both forms. In change from the strong to the weak conjugation in Swedish, the preterite is more resistant than the past participle, while in the other languages it is the reverse. We provide a unified explanation for these facts based on differences in category frequency due to the prominence or lack of an aspectual distinction between preterite and perfect.*

We investigate the rise of pejorative functions in word formation in a diachronic corpus-based case study on the German derivation patterns Ge-e and -(er)ei. Both patterns derive action nouns, adding the feature ‘frequentative’ and implying a dismissive/ironic attitude towards the action referred to. Our corpus data from 1350–1850 suggest that incipient pejorative derivational meanings are heavily based on utterance contexts and base types with derogative connotation. Diachronically, they conventionalize to a certain degree. However, – as implicature tests (especially calculability) show for -(er)ei and Ge-e –, they need not become a part of affix semantics. This lack of emancipation may be due to the high pragmatic productivity of pejorative contexts in reference to frequentative actions, leading to +> ‘annoyance’ in the first place, but also precluding the critical mass of neutral contexts/bases needed to prove emancipation.

No abstract

Betrachtet man "Verfallserscheinungen" des Verbalsystems wie Übergänge stark > schwach, so zeigt sich, dass hier weder Rezenz noch Verfall zu konstatieren ist. Mit diachroner und analytischer Tiefe offenbart sich ein gestaffelter, systematischer Komplexitätsabbau, der seine Hochphase im Frühneuhochdeutschen hat und sich schlecht mit der Passivität und Chaos implizierenden Verfallsmetapher verträgt: Reorganisation statt Dekadenz. Entwicklungen wie der präteritale Numerusausgleich (ich sang -wir sungen > ich sang -wir sangen) oder die Herausbildung der vereinfachten Ablautalternanz X-o-o sind nie nur Komplexitätsreduktion, sondern immer auch Systema tisierung; sie bremsen Verfall. Dabei ist der Gewinn an Systematik i.d.R. nicht Normautoritäten geschuldet, sondern ihm liegen sprachsystematische, kognitive und frequenzielle Faktoren zugrunde.