In the last decades, modern English has evolved into one of the dominant world languages of science and technology, sports and pop culture. In that it also has a growing influence on other languages such as German. Recent linguistic research has not yet been able to come up with the actual percentage of anglicisms in modern German. Linguists like Zifonun and Kirkness do however estimate that 11-40 % of all neologisms that enter the German language are of English origin. The biggest word class among these are nouns because their morphosyntactic integration into the target language does not pose too great a problem for speakers of German. This is different with verbs: their morphological structure is more complicated than that of nouns due to their wider system of inflectional paradigms. In comparison to German, English syntax is much stricter which results in different syntactic treatments of verbs in both languages. Besides, nowadays the only productive class among these consists of the regular weak verbs. All new loans are incorporated into this class and must therefore rigorously follow its inflectional paradigms. In that, the integration of verbal anglicisms into German is different from the integration of nouns which provides a fruitful area of linguistic research. After all, they account for 10-20 % of all anglicisms, as linguist Stephanie Bohmann is said to have found out.
The aim of this term paper is to take a look at variation in the formation of the past participle (“Partizip II”) of English verbs in German. For that purpose I will start with an introduction to previous research in that specific field, answering the general question how the past participle is formed in German and where problems may occur with verbal anglicisms. In a next step I will present the empirical study I conducted and the results collected from it in order to get a deeper insight into morphosyntactic variation in the process of word integration.
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
1.1 Previous Research
1.2 The Past Participle in German and its Application to Verbal Anglicisms
2 Empirical Study on Variation Patterns
2.1 Methodology
2.2 Presentation and Analysis of Results
2.3 Interpretation of Results and Comparison to Scherer’s Study
3 Conclusion
Research Objectives and Thematic Scope
The paper examines the morphosyntactic integration of English loan verbs into German, specifically focusing on the variation in the formation of the past participle (“Partizip II”) and the syntactic separation in present tense forms.
- Analysis of inflectional patterns of verbal anglicisms in German.
- Investigation of morphological and syntactic separation in particle verbs.
- Comparison of current empirical data with Carmen Scherer’s 1998/99 study.
- Evaluation of the influence of English language proficiency on speaker performance.
- Assessment of tendencies toward standardization and simplification in loan verb integration.
Excerpt from the Book
1.2 The Past Participle in German and its Application to Verbal Anglicisms
Since the topic of this term paper adverts to the formation of the past participle, I will now proceed by presenting the theoretical background associated with it. The past participle in German, also known as “Partizip II”, is used whenever an action has been completed and the condition resulting from that action is to be expressed (01, 02). As such it poses an anteriority to the rest of the statement (03).
(01) Dort fährt ein beladener Wagen the cart is in the completed state of being filled with goods.
(02) Er ist ein geschlagener Mann the man has already been hit.
Summary of Chapters
1 Introduction: Provides the theoretical foundation regarding the integration of English loan verbs into the German inflectional system and introduces the research question.
2 Empirical Study on Variation Patterns: Details the methodology of an online survey conducted in 2007, presents the gathered results regarding past participle and present tense formation, and compares these findings with previous research.
3 Conclusion: Summarizes the key observations regarding the integration of anglicisms and discusses the observed tendencies towards prefixation and standardization in the German language.
Keywords
Verbal Anglicisms, German Language, Partizip II, Inflectional Paradigms, Morphosyntactic Integration, Particle Verbs, Linguistic Variation, Empirical Study, Morphology, Syntax, Loan Verbs, Word Formation, Linguistic Borrowing, Standardisation, Scherer
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core subject of this paper?
The paper examines how English loan verbs are integrated into the German language, focusing specifically on their morphological behavior during past participle formation and their syntactic behavior in present tense constructions.
What are the primary thematic areas?
The study centers on the classification of foreign verbs (simplex, prefixed, and particle verbs), the rules of German inflection, and how these rules are applied by native speakers to anglicisms.
What is the main research question?
The research investigates how speakers of German form the past participle and present tense of English loan verbs and whether their level of English proficiency influences their adherence to traditional German morphological patterns.
Which scientific method was used?
The author conducted an empirical study via an online survey, collecting written responses from 36 German native speakers, and compared these results against data from a prior study by Carmen Scherer.
What is covered in the main section?
The main part covers the theoretical background of German verb inflection, the categorization of foreign verbs, and a detailed analysis of empirical survey results regarding the morphological and syntactic separation of particle verbs.
What are the characterizing keywords?
The paper is characterized by terms such as verbal anglicisms, inflectional paradigms, morphological integration, particle verbs, and linguistic variation.
How do speakers handle verbs with unclear particle separability?
The study suggests that speakers often opt for the simplest inflectional route, frequently treating these verbs as simplex verbs to avoid the complexities of separating particles from the root.
Did the author find that English proficiency affects inflection accuracy?
The author argues that a high level of English proficiency is not strictly necessary for correct inflection, as the data from a socially diverse group of participants yielded results consistent with previous studies involving only English students.
How does the formation of the past participle for loan verbs compare to native verbs?
Loan verbs are generally integrated into the weak verb class. However, for particle verbs, there is a noted tendency to prefer prefixation of the 'ge-' marker or, in some cases, to treat them like simplex verbs if the particle structure is perceived as complex.
- Quote paper
- Roman Büttner (Author), 2007, Patterns of variation in the participle formation of English loan verbs in German, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/90945
