Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Sprach- und literaturwissenschaftliche Fakultät - Nordeuropa-Institut

While the trend has been for Germanic strong verbs to become weak over time, changes in the opposite direction do occur, as well as lateral changes between strong classes. In Knooihuizen & Strik (2014) and Knooihuizen, Strik & De Jong (in preparation), a measure for the potential productivity of synchronic strong verb classes in Dutch and Frisian is developed using written elicitation experiments. In this lecture, I will describe our approach, its theoretical basis, how it may be adapted for use in other Germanic languages, as well as potential pitfalls in the method.