Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T02:51:21.024Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Perceptual salience and analogical change: evidence from vowel lengthening in modern Swiss German dialects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Carol Chapman
Carol Chapman
Affiliation:
Department of German Studies, Old Library Building, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE1 7RU, UK. E-mail:[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the light of current morphological theory, this paper examines the analogical levelling of long/short vowel oppositions in certain inflectional and derivational alternations in a number of modern Swiss German dialects. The regular occurrence of levelling is shown to depend on the extent to which the alternation in question is ‘perceptually salient’ (Chapman 1994). That is, if the semantic relation between base and derivative is transparent and the derivative is uniformly marked, analogical levelling occurs regularly. On the basis of this evidence it is argued that all morphological alternations, both inflectional and derivational, are listed in the lexicon and that each one is assigned a different status according to its degree of perceptual salience.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , March 1995 , pp. 1 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anderson, S. R. (1982). Where's morphology? Linguistic Inquiry 13. 571–612.Google Scholar
Anderson, S. R. (1992). A-morphous morphology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aronoff, M. (1976). Word formation in generative grammar. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Berger, J. (1913). Die Laute der Mundarten des St. Galler Rheintals. (Beiträge zur Schweizerdeutschen Grammatik 3.) Frauenfeld: Huber.Google Scholar
Booij, G. E. (1993). Against Split Morphology. In Booij, G. E. & van Marle, J. (eds.) Yearbook of Morphology. Dordrecht: Kluwer. 27–50.Google Scholar
Chapman, C. (1993). On the nature and place of morphology: analogical umlaut in German dialects. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Manchester.Google Scholar
Chapman, C. (1994). A diachronic argument against the Split Morphology Hypothesis – the case of analogical umlaut in German dialects. Transactions of the Philological Society 92. 25–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clauß, C. (1929). Die Mundart von Uri. (Beiträge zur Schweizerdeutschen Grammatik 17.) Frauenfeld: Huber.Google Scholar
Durrell, M. (1989). Umlaut in Old High German and after. In Flood, J. L. & Yeandle, D. N. (eds.) ‘mit regulu bithuungan’. Neue Arbeiten zur althochdeutschen Poesie und Sprache. Göppingen: Kümmerle. 219–232.Google Scholar
Enderlin, F. (1913). Die Mundart von Kesswil im Oberthurgau. (Beiträge zur Schweizerdeutschen Grammatik 5.) Frauenfeld: Huber.Google Scholar
Henzen, W. (1927). Die deutsche Freiburger Mundart im Sense- und südöstlichen Seebezirk. (Beiträge zur Schweizerdeutschen Grammatik 16.) Frauenfeld: Huber.Google Scholar
Lieber, R. (1980). On the organization of the lexicon. Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Lüssy, H. (1974). Umlautprobleme im Schweizerdeutschen. Frauenfeld: Huber.Google Scholar
Mayerthaler, W. (1981). Morphologische Natürlichkeit. Wiesbaden: Athenaion.Google Scholar
Schmid, K. (1915). Die Mundart des Amtes Entlebuch im Kanton Luzern. (Beiträge zur Schweizerdeutschen Grammatik 7.) Frauenfeld: Huber.Google Scholar
Streiff, C. (1915). Die Laute der Glarner Mundarten. (Beiträge zur Schweizerdeutschen Grammatik 8.) Frauenfeld: Huber.Google Scholar
Stucki, K. (1917). Die Mundart von Jaun im Kanton Freiburg. (Beiträge zur Schweizerdeutschen Grammatik 10.) Frauenfeld: Huber.Google Scholar
Tiersma, P. (1982). Local and general markedness. Language 58. 832–849.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vennemann, T. (1974). Words versus syllables in natural generative grammar. In Bruck, A. (ed.) Papers from the parassession on Natural Phonology. Chicago: Chicago Linguistics Society. 346–374.Google Scholar
Wiget, W. (1916). Die Laute der Toggenburger Mundarten. (Beiträge zur Schweizerdeutschen Grammatik 9.) Frauenfeld: Huber.Google Scholar