Relativism and Universalism in Linguistics - Fachbereich 10 ...

194 Workshops
We will deal with both sophisticated and unsophisticated extragrammatical operations ranging
from various abbreviatory devices and blends to reduplications. We will also analyse child
language (incl. rhyme words, cf. also Dressler et al. 2005) and child-directed speech and
expand into transitory domains of onomastics, such as into trade-names denoting objects (and
thus liable to turn into object names) and hypocoristics. Our point is that extragrammatical
operations of premorphology which are prevailing in this phase of language development,
nonetheless have specific regularities and irregularities differing from other and later
extragrammatical operations, which themselves vary to a great extent. In other words, the area
of extragrammatical morphology and their operations are more heterogeneous than any
grammatical domain of morphology.
References:
Dressler, Wolfgang U. 2000. Extragrammatical vs. marginal morphology. In U. Doleschal &
A.M. Thornton eds. Extragrammatical and Marginal Morphology. 1-10. München:
Lincom.
Dressler, Wolfgang U., Katarzyna Dziubalska-Ko_aczyk, Natalia Gagarina & Marianne
Kilani-Schoch. 2005. Reduplication in child language. In B. Hurch ed. Studies on
Reduplication. 455-474. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Kilani-Schoch, Marianne & Wolfgang U. Dressler. 2005. Morphologie naturelle et flexion du
verbe français. Tübingen: Narr.
Linguistic change in inflectional morphology and its causes:
processes of irregularization in German varieties
Klenk, Marion
University of Heidelberg
MarionKlenk@t-online.de
This paper focuses on irregularity in inflectional morphology on the basis of empirical studies
on German dialects. The dialectological approach to the topic offers several advantages:
Dialects are subjected to less normative restrictions than standard languages, therefore, it is
easier for irregular forms to emerge and, above all, to survive. This is why dialects provide
sufficient material for linguistic research. Apart from this, dialects accommodate the needs of
the users more easily than codified languages. It does not take centuries for language change
to become apparent, a few generations of speakers will suffice.
My reflections on irregularity in inflectional morphology are based on the sociolinguistic
research which I carried out in two different areas of Central Western Germany
(Eifel/Moselfränkisch and Pfalz/Rheinfränkisch). In each area, I interviewed three generations
of speakers with regard to their linguistic competence, their social backgrounds, and their
linguistic attitudes. It turned out that many of the existing irregularities in verbal inflection
were maintained instead of being adapted to the more regular standard norm, and new
irregularities were even established by the younger generations. This paper discusses the
possible extralinguistic and intralinguistic factors, mechanisms, and processes which are
responsible for these unexpected results. One main issue of this discussion will be the
question of whether typological constraints determine certain types of irregularity; my results
seem to support this assumption and provide evidence that irregularity is not arbitrary.