German verbs : an analytical study of the compilation and pedagogical use of a German verb frequency list

The purpose of this study is to present a list of the most frequent verbs in German as an aid to the German classroom teacher. A composite frequency list consisting of 2,301 German verbs derived from approximately 8,000 entries in thirteen authoritative word lists was compiled. In chapter I of the thesis, I discuss the differences and limitations of each source. It was discovered that lists differ by the following: date, compiler, method and basis of compilation, use, vocabulary, format, and number of entries. Limitations found in word lists are their date, focus of vocabulary, and format. In the next chapter, I give a detailed analysis of the basis, format, and results of the composite list. A computer program ranked these verbs into frequency groups of descending order from sixteen to one. The verbs appearing most frequently occur sixteen times. Although there are thirteen lists, a verb can appear as many as sixteen times due to the merger of lists (Rosengren, Tussing-Zimmerman) or homonymous verbs with both a strong and weak conjugation (Mattutat). The vocabulary in this list represents different usage domains of the language. An analysis of the frequency showed the following: 1. Modal, auxiliary, and irregular weak verbs form the smallest yet most frequent verb classes. 2. Weak verbs are the largest verb class. Weak verbs more than double the number of strong verbs and are also more frequent. 3. Simplex verbs are more frequent than composites. 4. Cognate verbs are frequent. Weak verbs comprise 60% of all cognates. With this information, a study of German weak verbs was made. Twenty-nine different conjugational classes were found for the weak verbs. Because many weak verbs have English cognates and have the most regular conjugation, they are easy to learn. By using these results, I also concluded that a basic German verb vocablary should consist of frequently appearing verbs that are simple, easily recognizable (cognates), and easily conjugated. A 590-word beginning German verb vocabulary is included as part of this thesis work. Careful choice of such verbs in the beginning language classroom can help beginning students progress rapidly in their ability to express themselves. Using information from frequency lists can aid in this choice.