Re: [DE] modal verbs

Lukas Pietsch:

> Helmut Richter wrote:
>> In article <dcoitp$a26$05$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Joachim Pense wrote:
>>
>>
>>>1) The verb "brauchen" is developing into a modal verb (if negated and
>>>used in connection with another Verb). The standard form
>>>
>>> (A) Ich brauche nicht zu arbeiten
>>> I needn't work
>>>
>>>is often replaced (to the dislike of teachers) by
>>>
>>> (B) Ich brauche nicht arbeiten
>>
>>
>> This seems to be universal across Germany, and I assume it has the
>> reason you suggest.
>>
>> (Wer "brauchen" ohne "zu" gebraucht, braucht "brauchen" überhaupt
>> nicht brauchen.)
>>
>>
>>>2) The verb "brauchen" is losing the "t" ending in the 3rd person
>>>singular, present tense:
>>>
>>> (C) Er brauch nicht arbeiten
>>> He needn't work
>>>
>>>but also
>>>
>>> (D) Er brauch kein Geld
>>> He needs no money
>>
>>
>> Where in Germany? My guess would be the extreme West, e.g. Saarland or
>> Trier but nowhere else.
>>
>
> including at least Westphalia, and probably largish parts of the rest of
> northern Germany. Most strongly, I'd say, in the modal use; the tendency
> towards the loss of /t/ in the non-modal use seems much less strong
> (which would fit Joachim's hypothesis), but I can well imagine hearing
> sentences like (D) above. Intuitively, I'd say it might be most common
> if the sentence is either negated, and/or if it has a clitic pronoun
> following the verb.
>
> I first heard the hypothesis of a link between /t/ loss and emerging
> modal status expressed by a lecturer at Münster university, during my
> introductory linguistics classes there. And he seemed *not* to be aware
> of /t/ loss in non-modal uses, that was the whole point of his theory.
>
> Lukas

I did not do a survey here but based my statement just on my own language
feeling. "er brauch" without the final "t" sounds sloppy, but ok, while "er
rauch" is impossible. I do not want to speculate if this feeling is
stronger in the modal than in the non-modal use; to know more, we'd need
hard data.

Joachim
.

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