Towards coherent infinitival patterns in the history of German

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-40
Author(s):  
Ulrike Demske

According to Haider (2010), we have to distinguish three types of infinitival complements in Present-Day German: (i) CP complements, (ii) VP complements and (iii) verbal clusters. While CP complements give rise to biclausal structures, VP complements and verbal clusters indicate a monoclausal structure. Non-finite verbs in verbal clusters build a syntactic unit with the governing verb. It is only the last infinitival pattern that we address as a so-called coherent infinitival pattern, a notion introduced in the influential work of Bech (1955/57). Verbal clusters are bound to languages with an OV grammar, hence the well-known differences regarding infinitival syntax in German and English (Haider 2003, Bobaljik 2004). On the widespread assumption that German has been an OV language throughout its history (Axel 2007), we expect all three types of infinitival complements to be present from the earliest attestions of German. This expectation, however, is not borne out. In the present article, I show that we find infinitival complements projecting either CPs or VPs in older stages of German, while verbal clusters turn out to be a quite recent phenomenon in the history of German, as already suggested in work by Askedal (1998), Demske (2008) and Maché & Abraham (2011). In line with current beliefs that German is underspecified regarding the direction of government in earlier stages of its historical development, I argue that the rise of verbal clusters is motivated by the increasing stabilization of an OV grammar since the 16th century.

Languages ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Dorien Nieuwenhuijsen

In this paper we will describe the historical development of the Spanish doublet ante-antes (‘before’) and explore the question whether a process of exaptation is involved (cf. Lass 1990). We will argue that the final –s of antes, that originally marked the adverbial status of the word, in the course of time had become a kind of morphological ‘junk’ (cf. Lass 1990) and, subsequently, could be exploited in order to encode the semantic opposition between temporal meaning on the one hand, and adversative meaning on the other hand. However, based on quantitative data we will show that the incipient semantic redistribution over the course of the 16th century rather suddenly collapsed, leading to a differentiation between the prepositional ante and adverbial antes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 507-519
Author(s):  
Saskia Metan

Summary Among the various descriptions of „Sarmatia“ which have been printed in the 16th century, the works of Maciej z Miechowa, Marcin Kromer and Alessandro Guagnini possessed the largest distribution: Published between 1517 and 1578, their works – containing information about the geography, history and population of the eastern part of the European continent – were reprinted and translated several times at several places until the middle of the 17th century. With a focus on paratexts and metatextual comments, the present article considers the entangled history of their editions in the 16th and 17th century and deduces receptions of these texts.


Diachronica ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 4 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 123-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Scott Allan

SUMMARY Since the publication of Lightfoot's work on the historical development of the English modal verbs (Lightfoot 1974, 1979:81-120), there have been several replies to his analysis. This article is another contribution to that debate and concentrates on three areas. Firstly, the time scale of the changes is scrutinized to see if it is as uniform as Lightfoot appears to think, and whether or not it supports his claim that a major reanalysis of the base of the grammar occurred in the 16th century. Secondly, the autonomy thesis, i.e., the claim that syntactic change proceeds independently of semantic and phonetic factors, is examined, and lastly Lightfoot's fragment of Old English grammar is assessed for its accuracy. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Seit der Veröffentlichung von Lightfoots Schriften über die historische Entwicklung der englischen Modalverben (Lightfoot 1974, 1979:81-120) gab es verschiedene Reaktionen auf seine Analyse. Dieser Artikel ist ein weiterer Beitrag zu dieser Debatte und beschäftigt sich mit drei Bereichen. Erstens wird die Chronologie der Veranderungen genau untersucht, urn zu sehen, ob sie tatsachlich so einheitlich vonstatten gegangen ist wie Lightfoot anzunehmen scheint und ob diese seine Behauptung unterstiitzt, daft es im 16. Jahrhundert eine umwälzende syntaktische Neustrukturierung gab. Zweitens wird die Autonomie-These untersucht, d.h. der Anspruch, daft sich syntaktische Veranderungen vollziehen, unabhangig von semantischen und phonetischen Faktoren. Schlieftlich wird Lightfoots Fragment einer Altenglischen Grammatik auf seine Genauigkeit überpruft. RÉSUMÉ Depuis la publication des travaux de D. Lightfoot sur le developpment historique des verbes modaux de 1'anglais (Lightfoot 1974, 1979:81-120) il y avait plusieurs reactions a son analyse. Le present article est une autre contribution a ce debat; il traîte des trois sujets particuliers. D'abord on examine la chronologie des changements afin de verifier l'uniformité maintenue par Lightfoot et sa these d'une restructuration profonde du systéme syntaxique de 1'anglais au XVIe siécle. Ensuit on examine la these (maintenue par Lightfoot) selon laquelle les changements syntaxique procedent independamment des facteurs phonetiques et sémantiques. Finalement on fait une evaluation de l'exactitude de son fragment d'un grammaire du vieux anglais.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (12) ◽  
pp. 9-32
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Szwajgier

The present article is aimed at collecting and arranging information about the Renaissance wind instruments with a double reed, which never before or after that period in the history of music presented as many tone colours. The author pays attention to the great importance of the sound of a wind ensemble as without these instruments – as Lorenz Walker claimed – neither a prince nor any wealthy city would have been able to fully show their significance. The first part of the article in this issue of the magazine presents the shawm, rackett, dulcian and bassanello – the instruments in which the reed was fully outside or partially enclosed by a pirouette – a small wooden part on which a musician could rest their lips and prevent fatigue. The author discusses the history and construction of these instruments, their use, scales, varieties and ways of playing. An addition to the text are the illustrations presenting construction details and circumstances in which these instruments were used. New concepts and ideas of instrument makers from the turn of the 16th century, such as the extended range of the bassanello, the piruet, or the “twist” of the bore of the over 2-metre-long bass shawm and thus creating a shorter instrument yet still remaining in the same register – the dulcian, are still admired by modern restorers of historical instruments. The article is meant both for people playing early music and modern performers interested in the topics connected with historical performance using old wind instruments.


1955 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Minorsky

THE historians1 who take the death of Jihan-shah's son Hasan 'All in 873/1468 as the end of the Qara-qoyunlu dynasty disregard the fact that for some time the descendants of Qara-Yusuf survived in Hamadan and in the beginning of the 16th century rose to new honours as the Qutb-shahs of Golconda. Under Indian skies they kept up their family traditions, and their court historians summed up afresh the history of the Qara-qoyunlu and restored the missing links in the genealogy of the kings of Golconda. These links form the special subject of the present article.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jernej Kosi

The textbook myth: Slovene peasants as heroes of the glorious pastThe present article describes how 16th century peasant uprisings became an essential part of the Slovene history curricula and analyzes their role in the present-day official understanding of Slovene national history. It argues that the established textbook narrations on peasant uprisings greatly contribute to the hegemonic representation of affirmative, unilinear and teleological historical development of the Slovene nation, which ultimately implies an “unavoidable” establishment of Slovenia as a nation state in 1991. Mit podręczników szkolnych: Chłopi słoweńscy jako bohaterowie chwalebnej przeszłościArtykuł przedstawia, w jaki sposób zasadniczym elementem programów nauczania historii Słowenii stały się XVI-wieczne powstania chłopskie i analizuje ich rolę we współczesnym oficjalnym rozumieniu narodowej historii Słowenii. Autor dowodzi, że ustalone narracje podręcznikowe w znacznej mierze przyczyniają się do hegemonicznego przedstawienia afirmatywnego, unilinearnego i teleogicznego historycznego rozwoju narodu słoweńskiego, co też ostatecznie implikuje „nieuchronne” ustanowienie Słowenii jako państwa narodowego w 1991 roku. [Transl. by Jacek Serwański]


2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 37-73
Author(s):  
Paul R. Powers

The ideas of an “Islamic Reformation” and a “Muslim Luther” have been much discussed, especially since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. This “Reformation” rhetoric, however, displays little consistency, encompassing moderate, liberalizing trends as well as their putative opposite, Islamist “fundamentalism.” The rhetoric and the diverse phenomena to which it refers have provoked both enthusiastic endorsement and vigorous rejection. After briefly surveying the history of “Islamic Reformation” rhetoric, the present article argues for a four-part typology to account for most recent instances of such rhetoric. The analysis reveals that few who employ the terminology of an “Islamic Reformation” consider the specific details of its implicit analogy to the Protestant Reformation, but rather use this language to add emotional weight to various prescriptive agendas. However, some examples demonstrate the potential power of the analogy to illuminate important aspects of religious, social, and political change in the modern Islamic world.


Author(s):  
Larisa V. Kolenko

The present article is concerned with the research results of the chronicles of N. Krupskaya Astrakhan Regional Research Library, representing history of the largest regional library of the Volga region in the context of development of the country librarianship as well as regional culture.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-96
Author(s):  
Ramon Reichert

The history of the human face is the history of its social coding and the media- conditions of its appearance. The best way to explain the »selfie«-practices of today’s digital culture is to understand such practices as both participative and commercialized cultural techniques that allow their users to fashion their selves in ways they consider relevant for their identities as individuals. Whereas they may put their image of themselves front stage with their selfies, such images for being socially shared have to match determinate role-expectations, body-norms and ideals of beauty. Against this backdrop, collectively shared repertoires of images of normalized subjectivity have developed and leave their mark on the culture of digital communication. In the critical and reflexive discourses that surround the exigencies of auto-medial self-thematization we find reactions that are critical of self-representation as such, and we find strategies of de-subjectification with reflexive awareness of their media conditions. Both strands of critical reactions however remain ambivalent as reactions of protest. The final part of the present article focuses on inter-discourses, in particular discourses that construe the phenomenon of selfies thoroughly as an expression of juvenile narcissism. The author shows how this commonly accepted reading which has precedents in the history of pictorial art reproduces resentment against women and tends to stylize adolescent persons into a homogenous »generation« lost in self-love


Author(s):  
Roman Fedorov

The article is devoted to the problem of the social state as one of the fundamental constitutional principles of the state structure of modern developed countries. The course of historical development of philosophical and legal thought on this problem is considered. The idea of a close connection between the concept of the social state and the ideas of utopian socialism of Thomas More and Henri Saint-Simon is put forward. Liberals also made a significant contribution to the development of the idea of the social state, they argued that the ratio of equality and freedom is a key problem for the classical liberal doctrine. It is concluded that the emergence of the theory of the social state for objective reasons was inevitable, since it is due to the historical development of society.


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