The Emergence of Sentence-internal Capitalisation in Early New High German

2020 ◽  
pp. 67-92
Author(s):  
Lisa Dücker ◽  
Stefan Hartmann ◽  
Renata Szczepaniak
Keyword(s):  
Early New High German

scholarly journals Nominalization and argument structure in Early New High German

2002 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 67-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrike Demske
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
German Language ◽  
Decomposition Approach ◽  
Lexical Decomposition ◽  
Early New High German ◽  
Carry Over ◽  
Syntactic Behavior ◽  
Different Parts

Recent work on argument selection couched in a lexical decomposition approach (Ehrich & Rapp 2000) postulates different linking properties for verbs and nouns, challenging current views on argument inheritance. In this paper, I show that the different behavior with respect to verbal and nominal linking observed for Present-Day German does not carry over to ung-nominals in Early New High German. Deverbal nouns and corresponding verbs rather behave alike with respect to argument linking. I shall argue that this change is motivated by the growing rift between ung-nominals and their verbal bases both focussing on different parts oftheir lexicosemantic structure in Present-Day German. Evidence for the verb-like behavior of ung-nominals in Early New High German comes from the regular meaning relation between verbs and corresponding derived nouns, the actional properties of event-denoting nouns, and the patterning of ung-nominals with nominalized infinitives. Even their syntactic behavior reflects the verbal character of ung-nominals during that period of the German language. The diachronic facts can be accounted for in a straightforward way once we adopt a lexical decomposition approach to argument selection.  

Possibilities and limitations of the localization of Middle and Early New High German sources using the example of the 'Sibyllenweissagung' (Bern, Burgerbibl., Cod. 537) Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Lokalisierung mittel- und frühneuhochdeutscher Quellen am Beispiel der 'Sibyllenweissagung' (Bern, Burgerbibl., Cod. 537)

2020 ◽  
Vol 149 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-393
Author(s):  
Eva Büthe-Scheider
Keyword(s):  
Special Regard ◽  
Early New High German

We improve the geolinguistic classification of a text witness of the 'Sibyllenweissagung', examine previous localizations of this example and discuss the methods of linguistic localizations with special regard to texts handed down in copial form. We provide evidence that in addition to the exclusive localization features, the local usances of writing also play an important role. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird die sprachliche Einordnung eines Textzeugen der 'Sibyllenweissagung' präzisiert. Dabei werden bisherige sprachräumliche Zuschreibungen überprüft und Grenzen und Möglichkeiten der Lokalisierung von kopial überlieferten Texten methodisch diskutiert und ausgelotet. Es zeigt sich, dass neben den aufzuspürenden Exklusivmerkmalen, die eine Lokalisierung erlauben, auch dem jeweils gültigen Schreibusus eine wichtige Rolle zukommt.

The usage and spread of sentence-internal capitalization in Early New High German: A multifactorial approach

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian Barteld ◽  
Stefan Hartmann ◽  
Renata Szczepaniak
Keyword(s):  
Word Frequency ◽  
Significant Interaction ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Mixed Effects Model ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Witch Trials ◽  
Early New High German ◽  
Multifactorial Approach

AbstractSentence-internal capitalization of nouns is a characteristic of written Standard German. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have been identified as the crucial period for the development of this graphemic convention. Previous studies have shown that animacy played a major role in the spread of sentence-internal capitalization. On the basis of the transregional SiGS-corpus consisting of 18 protocols of witch trials (hand-)written between 1588 and 1630, we propose word frequency as an additional factor and test for its interaction with animacy. Our data reveal that the proportion of capitalized words denoting humans and animate concepts increases rapidly, while the capitalization of lexemes referring to concrete and abstract concepts remains stable at a lower level. A binomial mixed-effects model shows a highly significant effect of frequency and a significant interaction between frequency and animacy. In sum, our data show how cognitive, pragmatic, and usage factors conspire in the gradual emergence of a graphemic convention. We therefore argue that the previously neglected graphemic dimension can add important insights to an empirically based theory of the language-cognition interface.

“Non-coordinating UND” in Middle and Early New High German

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophia Jana Oppermann
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Data ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
14Th Century ◽  
12Th Century ◽  
Head Element ◽  
Early New High German

Abstract Even though it has been noted quite early that the conjunction UND may also serve as a relative/equative particle or even a subjunction in MHG and ENHG, corpus-based empirical studies are lacking so far. Based on new empirical data, I show that non-coordinating UND originated in the UG dialect area during the 12th century, subsequently spreading to the CG dialect area and reaching the peak of its use in the 14th century. In contrast to recent literature, I argue that the non-coordinating use of the conjunction originated from semantically and syntactically ambiguous constructions of the form UND-XP-VFIN. I also propose that the earliest instances of the phenomenon are (adverbial) relative constructions and that the temporal and the equative function developed via reanalysis of adverbial relative clauses with a temporal/modal head element.

Polarization and the Emergence of a Written Marker. A Diachronic Corpus Study of the Adnominal Genitive in German

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-182
Author(s):  
Simon Pickl
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Data Basis ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Divergent Development ◽  
Early New High German ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Linguistic Usage

This article investigates the diachrony of the adnominal genitive in written German by analyzing its usage in a diachronic corpus of sermons from the Upper German dialect area spanning the time from the 9th to the 19th century. The wide temporal scope allows for a better assessment of the events relating to the genitive’s disappearance from spoken German in Early New High German and the successive rise of its adnominal form in written German. Sermons make it possible to study the phenomenon over a long time because they provide a relatively consistent data basis in terms of genre and region. At the same time, as a genre that has characteristics of both spoken and written language, sermons show signs of changing stylistic trends, which makes them valuable for gaining insights in the divergent development of genitive use in spoken and written German. In order to characterize this divergence better, I use the concept of polarization, which describes the differentiation of linguistic usage between disparate contexts such as speech and writing. It becomes clear that the changes in genitive use found in the corpus cannot be viewed independently of sociopragmatic factors and their impact on the stylistic shape of the texts.*

Conflicting Constraints in the Comparative Cycle

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukas Reinarz ◽  
Hugo de Vos ◽  
Helen de Hoop
Keyword(s):  
Early New High German ◽  
Over Time

Present-day Dutch shows an alternation reflecting a transition from the use of the comparative particle dan ‘than’ toward the particle als ‘as’ in comparisons of inequality. We argue that this transition—as well as the replacement of denn/dann by als in Early New High German, and als ‘as’ by wie ‘how’ in present-day German—results from a conflict between two competing principles, Economy and Iconicity. The conflict between these two constraints in German and Dutch gives rise to a cycle, in which having two particles—one for each construction—and having one particle for both, comparatives and equatives, alternate over time.*

Die pleonastischen Zusammensetzungen der deutschen Gegenwartssprache

1996 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert K. Bloomer
Keyword(s):  
Word Formation ◽  
Detailed Account ◽  
Semantic Relationship ◽  
Early New High German ◽  
Animal Names

In Early New High German the word for ‘greyhound’ was wind, but in Modern German it is Windhund. This kind of change from an original simplex to a compound is called “pleonastic compounding,” a term used as little as the topic itself is discussed in the study of word formation. In Modern German some ninety (or more) native and borrowed words from the realms of animals, plants, minerals and others have developed in this way. This essay provides the first detailed account of the pleonastic compounds in Modern German. These words are first collected and presented in conceptual groups. Further goals are to describe and categorize them morphologically; to illustrate the semantic relationship between their respective constituents by application of the concept of hyponomy, which is expanded by means of zoological taxonomy in order to deal with selected animal names; and to describe the possible causes of their formation.

Syncope as the Cause of Präteritumschwund: New Data from an Early New High German Corpus

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher D. Sapp
Keyword(s):  
Past Tense ◽  
Present Perfect ◽  
Early New High German ◽  
Weak Verbs

This paper examines the cause of the decline of the preterite tense in favor of the present perfect tense in Early New High German. This development has long been attributed to apocope, which rendered the 3sg. weak preterite suffix -te homophonous with the 3sg. present suffix -t. By analyzing a database of over 20,000 past-tense clauses, this study evaluates the apocope account and more recent hypotheses. The resulting data lead to a new explanation: syncope in the 2sg. and 2pl. of weak verbs yielded dispreferred final clusters (-tst and -tt), resulting in a preference in these contexts for the present perfect, which then spread to other contexts.*

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