Ich haute aufs Land ab, melkte eine Kuh, und backte einen Kuchen: Regularization of strong verbs in modern German

Abstract

Regularization of Germanic strong verbs is an expected process. Lieberman et al. (2007) and Carroll et al. (2012) showed that less common verbs are more likely to regularize than more common verbs. Edited texts represent a more formal register than unedited texts, and change in progress is more likely to be seen in informal texts (Weerman et al. 2013). Three verbs currently undergoing regularization are backen ‘to bake,’ abhauen ‘to go away,’ and melken ‘to milk.’ This corpus-based study supports the findings of Lieberman et al. (2007), Carroll et al. (2012), and Weerman et al (2013).

Covington, Conni. 2019. Ich haute aufs Land ab, melkte eine Kuh, und backte einen Kuchen: Regularization of strong verbs in modern German. UGA Working Papers in Linguistics 4, 1–14. The Linguistics Society at UGA: Athens, GA.