Weak and Strong Adjective Alternations in German

Abstract

Inflectional marking on attributive adjectives in Modem German, though well known and traditionally described as strong, weak, or “mixed,” has been a recurring topic of discussion (e.g., Netter 1994; Olsen 1991; Pafel 1994 2005; Plank 2002); questions remain concerning the explanation of certain co-occurrence patterns of adjective endings. One such pattern is discussed in this paper: two attributive adjectives in the same NP may in actual use show alternation in inflectional marking (e.g., mit schonem weiten Blick with a beautiful wide view” (Plank 1992:460) though only identical endings (e.g., mit schonem weitem Blick) would be expected according to some grammars. These alternations are often dismissed as idiosyncratic usage and then excluded from consideration. In contrast, in this paper they will be the focus of discussion and explained as reflecting a systematic difference. Corpus analyses of the use of quantifiers (Dipper 2005, Pfeffer and Linder 1984) shed light on this difference since, when preceding attributive adjectives, the use of certain quantifiers will result in alternations of inflectional marking on the adjectives. This paper aims to explain the alternations by suggesting that they reflect a difference in meaning. It is also shown that contextual syntactic information is essential. Furthermore, the results may lead to re-examining the presentation of teaching materials on adjectives for the German as a Second Language (GSL) classroom.