Swedish Word Accents

Anne-Marie Andreasson
University of Wisconsin

Swedish words are assigned one of two possible melodic contours traditionally called Accent 1 and Accent 2. "It has been demonstrated ... that the distinction between Accent 1 and Accent 2 is in the timing of a HL [High Low] pattern relative to the stressed syllable." (Bailey 1990:70). Bailey proposes a feature DP [delayed peak] for tone alignment, which serves as phonological opposition and alignment specification. [- delayed peak] aligns with the stressed syllable [+delayed peak] aligns with the post -stress syllable Dialects are divided into two main classes, the Low and the High dialects. For the minimal pair anden 'the duck' and anden 'the spirit', Bailey gives the following surface representation (H dialects):

accent 1     accent 2
H L      H L
    -DP            +DP
|  /             |  |
anden 'the duck'  anden 'the spirit'

Within Optimal Domains Theory the distinction between accents is expressed as a distinction in pitch domain, the domain being "an explicit aspect of phonological structure" (Cole and Kisseberth, 1994) and the interaction of constraints determines the output. The domain extends over the stressed syllable or over the stressed and the post-stress syllable:

accent 1      accent 2
H L       H L
| /       | |
(an)den 'the duck'  (anden) 'the spirit'

This account provides a principled way of relating the general trends observed by previous researchers and makes the relationship between stress, morphology and accent explicit.

ISBN 9783895862106. LINCOM Studies in Germanic Linguistics 03. 220pp. 2001.

English as a Human Language

To honour Louis Goossens

Johan van der Auwera, Frank Durieux & Ludo Lejeune (eds.)


The scholarship of Louis Goossens took him from Old to Present-Day English and to human language as such, from auxiliaries and grammaticalisation to metaphor and metonymy, and from philology to Functional and Cognitive Grammar.

32 papers have been written by colleagues and reflect the later stages of Goossens' career. The papers focus on modality (with contributions by E. Blom, F. Wijnen & S. Gillis, X. Dekeyser, P. Harder, J. Nuyts, K. Pelsmaekers & C. Braecke, L. Tasmowski & P. Dendale), lexical semantics (M. Aguirre, W. De Mulder & P. Dendale, D. Geeraerts, D. Sandra, G.A.J. Tops), metaphor (F. Boers, H. Cuyckens & M. Verspoor, L. Lejeune), spelling (F. Daems, G. De Schutter), grammatical categories (R. Dirven & G. Radden, G. Durieux & S. Gillis), pragmatics (R. Geluykens. K. Van de Poel), Functional, Cognitive and Systemic Grammar (with, among others, M. Hannay, J.L. Mackenzie, D. Noël, A.-M. Simon-Vandenbergen), contact linguistics (J. Blommaert, M. Meeuwis & J.-R. Yoka-Mpela), grammatical models (W. Daelemans, K. Davidse), the teaching of language and linguistics (K. Janicki, T. De Rycker, A. De Schryver), and localism (F. Brisard).

ISBN 9783895862151. LINCOM Studies in Germanic Linguistics 04. 361pp. 1998.

The Altai Dialect of Plautdiitsch

West-Siberian Mennonite Low German

Rogier Nieuweboer
University of Groningen

Plautdiitsch, the language used by Mennonites in many parts of the world, is a descendant of the West Prussian Low German dialects once spoken in the Weichsel delta area. Many of its characteristics can be explained by the two centuries of isolation from other (Low) German dialects and by contacts with other languages, especially Russian. The Altai dialect of Plautdiitsch, although still mutually intelligible with other varieties of the language, shows a number of peculiarities. Some of these are developments of traits common to all Plautdiitsch dialects, others have arisen as a result of the increasingly intensive contacts with the Russian speaking surroundings.

Apart from a short historical introduction, The Altai Dialect of Plautdiitsch consists of two parts. The first contains chapters on phonetics and phonology, the place of the Altai dialect in the Plautdiitsch diasystem, morfology (the case system), syntax (the auxiliary döune 'to do'), contact phenomena (elements from Germanic and Slavonic languages; code switching), and orthography. The second part contains interviews in Plautdiitsch with an English translation. Topics discussed by the informants include the history of the Mennonites in Russia, everyday life in Siberia, contacts with other ethnic Germans and Russians, and emigration to Germany.

Part I: 1. The phoneme system of Siberian Plautdiitsch. 1.1. Methodology. 1.2. The phonetic transcription. 1.3. Word list. 1.4. Phoneme description. 1.5. The vowel phoneme inventory. 1.6. The consonant phoneme inventory. 2. The place of West Siberian Plautdiitsch. 2.1. Introduction. 2.2. Data from recordings of various forms of Plautdiitsch. 2.3. The vowel phoneme in a historical perspective - Labov's chain shift theory. 2.4. Material from descriptions of various forms of Plautdiitsch. 2.5. Towards a historical phonology of Plautdiitsch. 2.6. Conclusions. 3. Morphology: the case system. 3.1. Introduction. 3.2. Analysis of Low German dialects. 3.3. Analysis of some varieties of Plautdiitsch. 3.4. Conclusions. 4. The verb 'to do' as an auxiliary. 4.1. Semantic functions and distribution. 4.2. Aspect: some definitions. 4.3. Analysis of examples from Low German texts. 4.4. Auxiliary 'to do' in Siberian Mennonite Low German. 4.5. Auxiliary 'to do' in other varieties of Mennonite Low German. 4.6. Aspect in Russian. 4.7. The rise of aspect. 4.8. Conclusions. 5. Plautdiitsch in contact with other languages. 5.1. Languages in contact. 5.2. Russian and Standard German elements in Plautdiitsch. 5.3. Code switching. 6. Towards a spelling of Plautdiitsch. 6.1. Does Plautdiitsch need an orthography? 6.2. Low German orthography. 6.3. Analysis of existing Plautdiitsch orthographies. 6.4. Some proposals for a Plautdiitsch orthography. Conclusions.
Part II: Plautdiitsch texts. Introduction. Speaker 1-6.

ISBN 9783895869365. LINCOM Studies in Germanic Linguistics 07. 360pp. 1999.

Plautdietsch Grammar

Eldo Neufeld

The stimulus for this project arises out of the realization that the Nether Saxon Low German dialect, Plautdietsch (a dialect, among others, of Niederdeutsch), is in dire danger of extinction. In the author's childhood (in the 1930s and 40s) the dialect was still widly spoken in Central Kansas and in various areas of Canada. Today there is a great need for help for many people whose parents spoke the dialect but did not pass it down to the next generation. This brief grammar seeks to help fill that need.

The work consists of 15 lessons, beginning with the smallest units of language, the letters of the alphabet and their sounds, moving from there to words, individual lessons on each of the parts of speech and their uses. Next come lessons on the combination of words in their proper relationships in the construction of sentences, and finally the combinations of sentences into texts as the largest unit of language. The final two lessons cover the areas of times and numbers. Each lesson consists of 1) grammatical material, 2) a vocabulary, 3) a brief narrative to be read, and 4) two sets of exercises, one in English and one in Plautdietsch.

ISBN 9783895862069. LINCOM Studies in Germanic Linguistics 08. 88pp. 2010. (2nd edition).

Plautdietsch Verb Conjugation. Vol. I

Eldo Neufeld


In retirement from the profession of librarianship, it was the author's intention to do some writing in his mother tongue of Plautdietsch, a dialect of Nether Saxon Low German, or Niederdeutsch. In his childhood (in the 1930s and 40s) this dialect was still widely spoken in Central Kansas and in various areas of Canada. Today it is in dire danger of extinction. The discovery that a knowledge of verb forms was indispensable, lead to an attempt to conjugate a few verbs in all the tenses. That attempt has now grown to a large total of verbs, 501 of which are included in this collection. Publications of such collections of conjugations are common in all major languages.

The conjugations consist of the 6 simple and 6 perfect tenses in the indicative mood, 1 simple and 1 perfect tense in the conditional mood, and 6 simple and 6 perfect tenses in the subjunctive mood. With each verb are included its English and German equivalent infinitives. These are listed in 2 indices which follow the conjugations: an English-Plautdietsch index and a German-Plautdietsch index, which enable a person to find instantly the Plautdietsch verb he wishes to use.

[Published in 2 volumes.]

Vol I. ISBN 9783895866142. LINCOM Studies in Germanic Linguistics 09. 580pp. 2000.
Vol II. ISBN 9783895868825. LINCOM Studies in Germanic Linguistics 10. 580pp. 2000.

Plautdietsch Verb Conjugation. Vol. II.

Eldo Neufeld


In retirement from the profession of librarianship, it was the author's intention to do some writing in his mother tongue of Plautdietsch, a dialect of Nether Saxon Low German, or Niederdeutsch. In his childhood (in the 1930s and 40s) this dialect was still widely spoken in Central Kansas and in various areas of Canada. Today it is in dire danger of extinction. The discovery that a knowledge of verb forms was indispensable, lead to an attempt to conjugate a few verbs in all the tenses. That attempt has now grown to a large total of verbs, 501 of which are included in this collection. Publications of such collections of conjugations are common in all major languages.

The conjugations consist of the 6 simple and 6 perfect tenses in the indicative mood, 1 simple and 1 perfect tense in the conditional mood, and 6 simple and 6 perfect tenses in the subjunctive mood. With each verb are included its English and German equivalent infinitives. These are listed in 2 indices which follow the conjugations: an English-Plautdietsch index and a German-Plautdietsch index, which enable a person to find instantly the Plautdietsch verb he wishes to use.

[Published in 2 volumes.]

Vol I. ISBN 9783895866142. LINCOM Studies in Germanic Linguistics 09. 580pp. 2000.
Vol II. ISBN 9783895868825. LINCOM Studies in Germanic Linguistics 10. 580pp. 2000.

Historical English Syntax

A statistical corpus-based study on the organisation of Early Modern English sentences

Javier Pérez-Guerra
University of Vigo

In this monograph the author explores the syntactic organisation of declarative clauses from late Middle English to present-day English and pays special attention to the consequences which the location of the subject has for the determination of the unmarked word order in Early Modern English. The data have been taken from two electronic corpora, namely, The Helsinki Corpus of English Texts and the Lancaster/Oslo-Bergen Corpus of British English.

The author outlines his own concept of 'theme,' which will be useful for the (explanatory and descriptive) purposes of describing syntactic (un)markedness. Such a concept leads to the existence of, on the one hand, an unmarked SV organisation and, on the other, of several marked patterns, viz sentences introduced by existential there, instances of subject extraposition and insertion of it, clefts, topicalisations, left-dislocations and subject inversions. The subsystems just mentioned are located on a scale of markedness, according to two variables: first, frequency, which is investigated by way of the statistical analysis of the data, and, second, 'linguistic functionality.' This second variable has been examined in the light of variables such as gender, textual category, discourse taxonomy, orality and informative principles such as 'given before new' or end-weight.

Javier Pérez-Guerra lectures on English linguistics and corpus linguistics at the Department of English, University of Vigo. His research is focused on syntactic change from Early Modern English onwards.

ISBN 9783895866517. LINCOM Studies in Germanic Linguistics 11. 300pp. 1999.

A Dictionary of Plautdietsch Rhyming Words

Eldo Neufeld

The author has been guilty of versifying from his early elementary school years. The hours spent searching mentally for proper rhyming words are unnumbered. Rhyming dictionaries are available in some languages, but not in the author's Plautdietsch mother tounge. In Little Red Hen fashion, the only solution was to fashion one oneself. In this attempt it became immediately clear that an abundance of rhyming words in English, often spelled in many different ways, does not exist in Plautdietsch. For example, variations in spelling in the rhyming portions of words (homonyms) like "ate, bait, straight, freight," sound alike and therefore rhyme with each other, have no counterpart in Plautdietsch. Rhyming words are usually spelled much more consistently, e.g. "deele" (to divide), "feele" (to feel), "heele" (to heal), or "Draikj" (dirt), "Flaikj" (intestines), "Saikj" (sacks). In all three cases of these groups of words, the rhymes are exact. It appears, therefore, that for the Plautdietsch versifier, the spelling variations in rhymes are much more limited than those in English.

The book is arranged into three sections:
Section I: Monosyllables, and words accented on the last syllable. Secion II: Words accented on the syllable before the last. Section III: Words accented on the third syllable from the end

In each section words are arranged alphabetically in lists under phonetic syllables, which are themselves arranged alphabetically. This arrangement should make it possible for the versifier to go quickly to a group of words which all contain the sound for which he is searching. It is hoped that this work will be found useful for the would-be Plautdietsch poet who is stuck for a rhyme in the middle of a great idea, or needs a better word to end a lovesong, or is tired of the same old refrains.

A Dictionary of Plautdietsch Rhyming Words is part three of the Plautdietsch project by Eldo Neufeld (Plautdietsch Grammar, ISBN 3895866156. LINCOM Studies in Germanic Linguistics 08; Plautdietsch Verb Conjugation, Vol I. ISBN 389586 614 8. LINCOM Studies in Germanic Linguistics 09, Vol II. ISBN 389586 882 5. LINCOM Studies in Germanic Linguistics 10).

ISBN 9783895863622. LINCOM Studies in Germanic Linguistics 15. 76pp. 2002.

Dictionary of Plautdietsch Synonyms and Antonyms

Eldo Neufeld

Finding the precise word or phrase that will help a writer express his idea with impact and accuracy requires a very special tool. It is hoped that this Dictionary of Plautdietsch Synonyms and Antonyms will prove to be that tool for people writing in the Plautdietsch dialect. Work on this project over a number of years has proven to the author that our 450-year-old dialect, originally formulated in the 16th and 17th centuries in Northern Europe, is unbelievably and un- expectedly rich in its vocabulary and possibilities of expression.

The stimulus for the present work arose out of the enjoyment experienced by the author in the use of such synonym and antonym finders in other languages. This attempt to create such a dictionary in the Plautdietsch dialect is the result."

ISBN 9783895868504. LINCOM Studies in Germanic Linguistics 16. 240pp. 2003.

Long-distance Reflexives In Norwegian

A quantitative study
Tania E. Strahan
The University of Melbourne, Australia

This study is an investigation into the acceptability of long-distance reflexives (LDRs, sometimes called non-clause-bounded reflexives) to speakers of Norwegian. This study uses a different methodology to all other studies of this phenomenon, in that it uses a quantitative approach to determine grammaticality and acceptability rather than an introspective, purely qualitative analysis. In this respect, the results of this study will be of interest to Norwegian linguists and other researchers of syntax, since the judgements recorded are those (on the whole) of 'average', non-linguistically trained speakers.

Their intuitions regarding the use of long-distance reflexives provide valuable data, in particular in confirming tendencies assumed in the syntax-oriented LDR literature, while also showing that these tendencies are not absolute. It suggests that a purely syntactic approach to LDR is too restrictive, at least for the Norwegian data presented here.

The quantitative methodology shows the acceptability of LDR in Norwegian is far from syntactically homogeneous, showing that current approaches to LDR are inadequate. The results of this study show that there are regional differences in the acceptability of LDR in Norway. Other factors such as age, level of education, sex, the 'nativeness' of the speaker, the 'nativeness' of both the speaker's parents and whether the speaker was from a city or the country also affect a speaker's use and acceptance of LDR.

ISBN 9783895867095. LINCOM Studies in Germanic Linguistics 20. 190pp. 2003.