LINGUIST List 17.2986
Thu Oct 12 2006
Diss: Historical Ling: Mailhammer: 'A Morphological and Etymologica...'
Editor for this issue: Hannah Morales
<hannahlinguistlist.org>
Directory
1. Robert
Mailhammer,
A Morphological and Etymological Study of the Germanic Strong Verbs
Message 1: A Morphological and Etymological Study of the Germanic Strong Verbs
Date: 12-Oct-2006
From: Robert Mailhammer <Robert.Mailhammerweb.de>
Subject: A Morphological and Etymological Study of the Germanic Strong Verbs
Institution: University of Munich
Program: International Doctoral Program in Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2005
Author: Robert Mailhammer
Dissertation Title: A Morphological and Etymological Study of the Germanic Strong Verbs
Linguistic Field(s):
Historical Linguistics
Language Family(ies): Germanic
Indo-European
Dissertation Director:
Elisabeth Leiss
Theo Vennemann
Dissertation Abstract:
This study examines the morphology of the Germanic strong verbs fromdiachronic, comparative and typological points of view and provides aquantitative analysis of their etymological situation as a contribution tothe ongoing discussion of the origin of the Germanic language. It is shownhow the system of the strong verbs underwent a process of extremeuniformisation and simplification, which is directly connected to thesystematisation and functionalisation of ablaut. In particular, the use ofablaut stands in a typological contrast to the poistion of ablaut in theverb system of the Indo-European parent language.
Apart from the morphological investigation, the quantification of theetymological situation of the Germanic strong verbs, which has been carriedout for the first time, reveals that the etymological relations of theGermanic strong verbs to the Indo-European language family are much moreobscure than hitherto assumed, as opposed to Sanskrit and Ancient Greek,for which a comparative analysis yields that they possess significantlymore primary verbs of ascertained Indo-European origin.
The results of this study thus has telling implications for the genesis ofthe Germanic strong verbs and may also provide a basis for further researchin this area.
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