CO-OCCURRENCES OF DOUBLING VERBS IN SWISS GERMAN PHILIPP STOECKLE • UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH

Results • Hypotheses can generally be confirmed, i.e. AFA occurs (mostly) as a

doubling element … where it is available as a reduced infinitive … where also doubling of LAA is found … where rising verb serialization is used

• However, there is still variation that has to be accounted for • Real-time comparison between Wenker survey and SADS data and

apparent-time comparison between different age groups suggest a diffusion of the doubling rule for AFA

Introduction One class of phenomena considered to be typical for Swiss German are the so-called verb-doubling constructions (cf. Lötscher 1993) affecting the motion verbs gaa (‘to go’) and choo (‘to come’) as well as the raising verbs laa (‘to let’) and afa (‘to begin’). In this type of construction, a reduced variant of the verb is repeated before the infinitive, as illustrated in the following example: (1) [dann] fangt s Iis AFA schmelze

[then] begins the ice BEGIN to melt “[then] the ice begins to melt”

However, the different verbs differ with respect to their geographic distributions: while the doubling of gaa is obligatory all over German-speaking Switzerland and the doubling of choo in the western part, the two other verbs only show optional doubling which is restricted to western Switzerland. So far there have been a number of theoretical accounts dealing with the explanation primarily of the motion verb construction (cf. Brandner & Salzmann 2011), but apart from some smaller surveys (cf. Glaser & Frey 2011), there are still desiderata especially regarding the verb afa.

References Brandner, E. and Salzmann, M. (2011): Die Bewegungsverkonstruktion im Alemannischen. In Glaser, E., Schmidt, J. E. and Frey, Natascha (eds): Dynamik des Dialekts – Wandel und Variation: 47–76. Stuttgart: Steiner.

Bucheli, C. and Glaser, E. (2002). The Syntactic Atlas of Swiss German Dialects: Empirical and Methodological Problems. In Barbiers, S., Cornips, L. and van der Kleij, S. (eds): Syntactic Microvariation, Vol. 2: 41–73. Amsterdam: Meertens Institute Electronic Publications in Linguistics.

Glaser, E. and Frey, N. (2011): Empirische Studien zur Verbverdoppelung in schweizerdeutschen Dialekten. Linguistik online 45/1: 3–7.

Lötscher, A. (1993): Zur Genese der Verbverdopplung bei gaa, choo, laa, aafaa (“gehen”, “kommen”, “lassen”, “anfangen”) im Schweizerdeutschen. In Abraham, W.; Bayer, J. (eds): Dialektsyntax: 180–200. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag.

philipp.stoeckle@ds.uzh.ch • MODELLING MORPHOSYNTACTIC AREA FORMATION IN SWISS GERMAN (SynMod) • www.spur.uzh.ch/synmod.html

Hypotheses 1) AFA occurs as a doubling element if it is used as reduced infinitive (AFAdoubl → AFAredinf) 2) AFA occurs as a doubling element if also doubling of LAA is used (AFAdoubl → LAAdoubl) 3) AFA occurs as a doubling element if rising verb serialization is used (AFAdoubl → AUX/MOD-V)

Methods 1) Co-occurrences in individual speakers • 2) Co-occurrences in survey locations

Development of doubling rule for laa & afa (cf. Lötscher 1993):

Development of a verbal preposition (for gaa) Development of a doubling rule ( expansion to choo) Expansion of already existing rule to laa & afa

“Voraussetzung ist […], daß eine solche […] Kurzform dieses Infinitivverbs lexikalisch zur Verfügung steht.“ (Lötscher 1993: 193)

(‘It is required that such a reduced form of this infinitival verb is lexically available’)

Geographic Distributions of Related Phenomena

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

young (< 40years)

middle (40-64 years)

old (> 64years)

60.0 61.7 70.5

40.0 38.3 29.5

III.1 …, fängt das Eis an zu schmelzen

doubling

no doubling

75%

80%

85%

90%

95%

100%

young (< 40years)

middle (40-64 years)

old (> 64years)

85.6 86.6

92.7

14.4 13.4

7.3

III.12 …, wenn sie anfängt zu kochen

Pearson’s Chi-squared test: χ²=21.693, df=2, p<.001 Pearson’s Chi-squared test: χ²=23.179, df=2, p<.001

Co-occurrences of variants Percentage (individuals)1

Percentage (locations)2

III.1 …, fangt s Iis afa schmelze

IV.7 Jetzt chasch du afa. 93% 97%

IV.7 Jetzt chasch du afange. 3% 20%

II.3 Er laat de Schriiner laa choo. 80% 94%

II.3 Er laat de Schriiner choo. 18% 66%

II.1 Hesch du d‘Uhr laa flicke? 92% 96%

II.1 Hesch du d‘Uhr flicke laa? 5% 23%

III.12 …, wenn sie faat afa choche

IV.7 Jetzt chasch du afa. 93% 100%

IV.7 Jetzt chasch du afange. 2% 15%

II.3 Er laat de Schriiner laa choo. 78% 99%

II.3 Er laat de Schriiner choo. 18% 65%

II.1 Hesch du d‘Uhr laa flicke? 93% 100%

II.1 Hesch du d‘Uhr flicke laa? 2% 15%

III.1 Wenn es so warm bleibt, fängt das Eis an zu schmelzen. (‘If it stays this warm, the ice will begin to melt.’)

… fangt s Iis aa schmelze. … fangt s Iis afa schmelze.

III.12 Nimm die Suppe sofort weg, wenn sie zu kochen anfängt. (‘Take away the soup when it starts to boil.’)

… wenn sie aafangt choche. … wenn sie faat afa choche.

Central questions Under what conditions does AFA occur as a doubling element?

Is there evidence for change with respect to the doubling of AFA?

1 The pairwise percentage values do not always add up to 100% since in some cases the informants didn‘t answer all questions or gave answers which are not included here. 2 The pairwise sums of percentage values generally exceed 100% since multiple informants (and therefore multiple answers) were considered in each survey location.

The Database Syntaktischer Atlas der deutschen Schweiz (SADS; ‘Linguistic Atlas of German-speaking Switzerland’) (cf. Bucheli & Glaser 2002)

Project funded by the SNF 2000-2008 (extended through 2014) 4 questionnaires including different syntactic phenomena 3187 informants at 383 locations (between 3 and 26 informants at each

location) Different questioning techniques (translation, completion, multiple

choice)

Examples

II.3 Er lässt den Schreiner kommen (‘He calls for the carpenter.’) (Doubling of LAA) … laat de Schriiner choo / … laat de Schriiner laa cho

II.1 Hast du die Uhr flicken lassen? (‘Did you have your watch repaired?’) (Word order in verb cluster) … flicken lassen / … lassen flicken

Evidence for linguistic change? 1) Real-time change: Comparison of SADS data with data from the

Wenker survey which took place around 1930 in Switzerland (at the moment 466 questionnaires transliterated)

Sentence 3: Tu Kohlen in den Ofen, damit die Milch bald anfängt zu kochen. (‘Put coal into the oven so that the milk will start to boil soon.’) … dass d’ Milch bald afangt choche … dass d’ Milch bald fat afa choche

2) Apparent-time change: Comparison of different age groups in the SADS informants