Klar – klärer – am klärsten? Umlaut comparison as a doubtful case in contemporary German

The present paper addresses doubtful cases concerning the use of umlaut in the adjectival comparison of contemporary German: bang ‘anxious’ - banger/bänger - am bangsten/ bängsten. It aims to shed light on the concrete distribution of this variation, i.e. the preference for one of the variants. Corpus-based analyses will show that the adjectives under discussion are not equally affected by umlaut variation: some are (surprisingly) stable (e.g., gesund ‘healthy’), whereas many others have a clear preference (i.e. > 70%) for non-umlauting forms (e.g., blass ‘pale’, nass ‘wet’). Interestingly, a few of the supposedly stable cases appear to have at least some non-umlauting forms (e.g., krank ‘ill’, nah ‘near’, grob ‘rough’). Even more interesting (but still comparatively rare) is the use of umlaut in conceptual orality contexts with adjectives that exhibit no umlaut comparison in Standard German, e.g., klar ‘clear’, falsch ‘wrong’, doof ‘stupid’. As will be demonstrated, these doubtful cases reflect a centuries-old and still ongoing reorganization process within umlaut comparison. It will turn out that a complex network of interacting factors such as token frequency, phonological schemas, and morphological complexity is at work.

Apert Syndrome

Apert syndrome is a rare autosomal dominant malformation. In the recent past we encountered a boy of 16 months with fusion of both fingers and toes, dysmorphic facial features presenting with cough and respiratory distress in Khulna Medical College hospital. Considering the general paucity of cases of acrocephalosyndactyly in the Bangladeshi literature, this case demands reporting. Careful evaluation is necessary in a doubtful case to optimize the treatment.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bmjk.v44i1-2.10473Bang Med J (Khulna) 2011: 44(1&2) 25-27

DR. ARTHUR WENTWORTH AND THE FIRST LUMBAR PUNCTURE AT THE BOSTON CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL IN 1895

In August 1895 Dr. Arthur Wentworth performed the first lumbar puncture ever done at the Children's Hospital in Boston. The patient was a 2-year-old girl with a doubtful case of tuberculous meningitis. The experience proved a harrowing one for Wentworth, as is evident from his description of it. We punctured the spinal canal, using for the purpose the needle from an antitoxin syringe, and withdrew six cubic centimetres of a clear fluid which looked like distilled water. No tubercle bacilli were found.... Immediately after tapping the canal the child became restless, throwing herself about the bed, clutching at her hair and giving vent to short cries. The pulse rose to over 250 in the minute, the respiration was superficial, and the skin was cool and slightly livid. Subcutaneous injections of brandy and ether were given, heaters applied, and the foot of the bed raised. This condition persisted about the same for three-quarters of an hour, and then the child became quieter.1 During the attack I felt considerable uneasiness because I was unprepared for such a result and did not know but that it would terminate fatally. I now believe that the symptoms were due to headache, caused by the removal of fluid, and that her life was not endangered.2

The Predictive Validity of a Psychological Test of Brain-Damage

A psychological test of brain-damage, shown to be valid in discriminating between unequivocal brain-damaged and non-brain-damaged psychiatric patients, is limited in its diagnostic role until studies can demonstrate its independent diagnostic contribution in the clinically doubtful case of brain-damage.