Mittelhochdeutsche Studiengrammatik: Eine Pilgerreise. Von Michael Graf. Tübingen: Niemeyer. 2003. Pp. 304. ¤22.

Graf's introduction to Middle High German (MHG) is perhaps the most unusual to have crossed my desk. It breaks with neogrammarian and structuralist tradition and attempts to nurture the cognitive framework of investigation that will lead a student to understanding most fully a Middle High German text and to the ability to translate it with nuance and comprehension. As an example of what this implies, let us look at the introduction to the verbal system. Graf gives us on pp. 85­88 a cobbled together passage in MHG, interspersed with 11 principles of verbal interpretation. The method is traditional but one I haven't seen spelled out this way before: 1. Get an overview of the system; 2. Don't guess, especially at first; 3. Negation and prefixes; 4. Get a grip on the more common but inflectionally anomalous verbs; 5. Be aware of sentence context; 6. vürhten and würken; 7. Rückumlaut; 8­9. Distinguish weak verbs and be aware of -t- and -d- that are part of stem; 10. Be aware of weak present forms; 11. Know strong verb classes. This combines usefully specifics of the grammatical system with practical generalities of how to approach linguistic understanding.

Frederick W. Schwink
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign