Germanic Strong Verbs: Foundations and Development of a New System Book

Preface     V
Abbreviations     X
Introduction and preliminaries     1
Subject: The strong verbs of Germanic     1
Internal development vs. external influence     5
A comprehensive theory of external influence     8
Structure of this study     11
Systematized and functionalized ablaut: The morphology of the Germanic strong verbs     15
The foundations of the system: Ablaut and reduplication     15
Ablaut     15
The nature and origin of ablaut in Indo-European     15
Ablaut grades in Indo-European     19
Ablaut patterns and verbal stem formation in Indo-European     22
The position of ablaut in Indo-European verbal morphology     26
Reduplication     32
Reduplication and ablaut in the Germanic strong verbs     33
Reduplication in the Germanic strong verbs     34
Ablaut in the Germanic strong verbs     45
The surface structure of the Germanic verb system     51
A tripartite system: The Germanic strong verbs     53
The primary system: Classes I to V     56
Mechanism     56
A reconstruction of the primary system     57
Class I     60
Class II     62
Class III     63
Class IV     65
Class V     66
Lengthened grade and full grade in classes IV and V     67
Class VI as a model     74
The nominal system as a source     75
Replacement by aorist formations     76
Replacement by an alternative perfect formation     77
Analogical spread     79
Summary: The lengthened grade in classes IV and V     85
The secondary system: Class VI     86
A separate system     87
Origin of class VI     89
Structural properties     103
The safety net system: The reduplicating verbs     104
Preliminary background assumptions     104
Morphological characteristics     108
Vowels     109
Consonants     110
The system of the Germanic strong verbs: A summary     111
Processes of regularization and traces effusion     112
Processes of regularization I: Loss of the aorist, thematization and root-normalization     113
Loss of the aorist     113
Neo-Perfects and thematization     114
Root-normalization I     115
Processes of regularization II: Large-scale root-normalization     116
Irregular vs. regular root vocalism: Zero grade presents in Germanic     117
Cases of normalized zero grade presents: Root normalization II     123
The extent of the regularization of original zero grade presents     129
Summary of chapter two     138
Inheritance vs. acquisition: The etymological situation of the Germanic strong verbs     141
Etymology and Germanic     142
Etymology as a linguistic discipline     142
The position of Germanic in previous etymological research     144
Etymology and the Germanic strong verbs     145
Quantitative approaches and the theoretical background     148
Quantitative approaches     148
Theoretical and methodological background     150
The quality of etymologies     150
Methodological considerations for a quantitative etymological analysis of the Germanic strong verbs     153
The methodological framework     157
Sample categorizations     161
Quantitative analysis of the etymological data     167
Database     167
The etymological situation of the Germanic strong verbs: Results     168
Overall results for the complete corpus     168
Class I      168
Class II     169
Class III     170
Class IV     171
Class V     171
Class VI     172
Reduplicating verbs     173
Discussion and evaluation     174
The primary verbs of Sanskrit     180
The primary verbs of Ancient Greek     181
Contrastive evaluation     182
Summary of chapter three     184
Conclusion and further thoughts     188
Conclusion: The Germanic strong verbs as a new system     188
Implications on the history of Germanic     195
Possible pathways for future research     199
Appendix A     211
Appendix B     213
Appendix C     230
References     234
Word index     254
Subject index     261