De Nederlandse meervoudsallomorfie tussen Duitse complexiteit en Engelse eenvoud. (Die niederländische Pluralallomorphie zwischen deutscher Komplexität und englischer Simplizität) (Dutch plural allomorphy between German complexity and English simplicity)

Kurzfassung/Abstract

The comparison of the plural formation of the three Germanic languages Dutch, German, and English reveals different degrees of complexity. While English only uses the s-plural (with three variants) productively, Dutch and German are characterized by competing productive plural allomorphs: Dutch uses the s- and the (e)n-plural, and German has even more allomorphs, which include not only suffixes, but also stem allomorphy (umlaut). In this article, basic assumptions on morphological complexity are made and tested with respect to the plural allomorphy employed in these three languages. Complexity is based on multidimensional factors, namely 1) the number of forms and formal processes employed, 2) allomorph conditioning, 3) intra-systematic variation, and 4) formal redundancy versus zero realization of the relevant plural concept. The results confirm Van Haeringen’s (1956) assumption that Dutch can be positioned between German and English (“Nederlands tussen Duits en Engels”), with Dutch having a special status with respect to intra-systematic variation.