productivity of -ung nominalisation in german€¦ · nominalisation in german 29.01.2020 eleonore...

Productivity of -ungnominalisation in German

29.01.2020 Eleonore Laubenstein, Universität Leipzig 1

Content• Introducing –ung

• A-N derivation• N-N derivation• V-N derivation

• Structural restrictions on verbal –ung derivation• Lexical blocking• The Dative case restriction• Argument realisation

• -ung in the modern world


Introducing –ung: A-N derivation• wüst (‘desolate’) – Wüst-ung (‘abandoned village’)• nieder (‘low’) – Nieder-ung (‘lowland’)

Unproductive


Introducing –ung: N-N derivation• Satz (‘sentence’) – Satz-ung (‘constitution’)• Zeit (‘time’) – Zeit-ung (‘newspaper’)• Acht (‘attention’) – Acht-ung (‘attention, respect’)

Unproductive


Introducing –ung: V-N derivation• Transitive verbs

• beleidigen (‘insult’) – Beleidig-ung (‘insult’)• trauen (‘wed’) – Trau-ung (‘wedding’)• verteidigen (‘defend’) – Verteidig-ung (‘defense’)

• Intransitive verbs• erblinden (‘go blind’) – Erblind-ung (‘loss of sight’)• landen (‘land’) – Land-ung (‘landing’)

• Reflexive verbs• fortpflanzen (‘reproduce’) – Fortpflanz-ung (‘reproduction’)

✓productive→ Or is it?


Introducing –ung: V-N derivation• Consider the following examples …

• arbeiten (‘work’) – *Arbeit-ung• tanzen (‘dance’) – *Tanz-ung• studieren (‘study’) – ?*Studier-ung• helfen (‘help’) – *Helf-ung• danken (‘thank’) – *Dank-ung• vertrauen (‘trust’) – *Vertrau-ung

→ Can be easily explained…


-ung Restrictions I: Lexical blocking• Lexical blocking prevents the formation of (morphologically

complex) words with existing (morphologically simpler) synonyms. (cf. Plag, 1999)

• *steal-er (complex) blocked by thief (simple)• V-N derivation is blocked by morphological/syntactic conversion:

• schlagen (‘punch’) – Schlag (‘blow, punch’) – *Schlag-ung• arbeiten (‘work’) – Arbeit (‘work’) – *Arbeit-ung• tanzen (‘dance’) – Tanz (‘dance’) – *Tanz-ung• studieren (‘study’) – Studium (‘study’) – *Studier-ung


Lexical blocking: Observations

• -ung prefers complex (prefixed) V-stems over simple ones:• nehmen (‘take’) – *Nehm-ung• ver-nehmen (‘interrogate’) – Ver-nehm-ung (‘interrogation’)

• the prefix can increases the valency of the verb:• arbeitenintr (‘work’) – *Arbeit-ung blocked by: Arbeit• be-arbeitentr (‘treat, process’) – Be-arbeit-ung (‘treatment, processing’)

• LB doesn’t occur as frequent in transitive complex verbs as it does in intransitive complex ones:• ab-treten (intr, ‘resign’) – Ab-tritt (‘resignation’)• ab-treten (tr, ‘assign sb sth, yield sth’) – Ab-tret-ung (‘assignment, demise’)• um-kehren (intr, ‘turn back’) – Um-kehr (‘reversion’)• um-kehren (tr, ‘inverse’) – Um-kehr-ung (‘inversion’)


-ung Restrictions II: Structural restrictions• No –ung nominalisations with verbs that take dative objects:

• (ihm3SG.M.DAT) helfen (‘help (him)’) – *Helf-ung• (ihr3SG.F.DAT) danken (‘thank (her)’) – *Dank-ung• (ihnen3PL.DAT) vertrauen (‘trust (them)’) – *Vertrau-ung


Argument realisation

• Verbal arguments can be optionally realised as complements of the derived noun

Ele füttert den KaterACC‘Ele feeds the cat.’

• The object (patient/theme) is assigned genitive case:Die Fütter-ung des KatersGEN‘The feeding of the cat.’

• The subject (agent) is realised as a possessor phrase:ElesGEN Fütter-ung des KatersGEN‘Ele’s feeding of the cat.’


Argument realisation

• This does not work with verbs that take the Dative case.• Consider the ditransitive verb geben (‘give’).

Ele gibt das FutterACC dem KaterDAT.‘Ele gives the food to the cat.’

• Let’s use the converted form of the verb here since *Geb-ung is ungrammatical:

Das Geben des FuttersGEN‘The giving of the food.’ElesGEN Geben des FuttersGEN‘Ele’s giving of the food.’*ElesGEN Geben des FuttersGEN dem/an den KaterDAT‘Ele’s giving of the food to the cat.’


Is this really an argument for unproductivity?• So far, -ung derivation doesn’t seem to be unproductive, just limited.• These limitations can be explained by a few simple restrictions.• However …


-ung and the modern world

• What about newly imported words from English?• to google – google-n *Google-ung vs. Googlen• to take a screenshot – screenshot-t-en *Screenshot-ung vs. Screenshotten• to stalk – stalk-en *Stalk-ung vs. Stalken• to chill – chill-en *Chill-ung vs. Chillen• to check – check-en *Check-ung vs. Checken• to mail – mail-en *Mail-ung vs. Mailen• to chat – chat-t-en *Chat-(t)-ung vs. Chatten


ReferencesPlag, Ingo. Morphological productivity : structural constraints in English derivation. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 1999.


productivity of -ung nominalisation in german€¦ · nominalisation in german 29.01.2020 eleonore...

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