scholarly journals THE ORDER OF STUDY OF VOWEL SOUNDS IN INTRODUCTORY AND PHONETIC COURSES IN THE GERMAN LANGUAGE (ON THE MATERIAL OF STATISTICAL AND DIACHRONIC STUDIES)

Author(s):  
Igor Peresada

Most ancient vowels in the period of the birth of the German language are revealed. The phonetic structure of a single-root German word in the Old High German and Middle High German periods of the development of the German language is described. The statistical frequency of using vowels in the above periods has been determined. Key words: vowels and consonants, Old High German and Middle High German periods, frequency of use

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-370
Author(s):  
Martina Werner

This article investigates the historical development of synthetic compounds with the suffix -erei, such as German Buchleserei ‘book reading’. Synthetic compounding has been attested in older language stages of German, as in Old High German kirihwihî ‘church consecration’ or Middle High German bluotspîunge ‘blood spitting’. In the history of the German language, synthetic compounds are the last step in the development of a nominalizing suffix. Suffixes attach first to simplex bases (such as German Leserei ‘reading’), and only afterwards can they form synthetic compounds with a compound base (such as Bücherleserei ‘reading of books’). The development of verbal synthetic compounding results from three different sources: a) a suffixal pattern based on compound nominals (such as exocentric Freigeist ‘free spirit’ becomes Freigeisterei ‘free spiritedness’), where the pattern develops the ability to nominalize VPs (such as Nichtstuerei ‘doing nothing’); b) root compounds which develop the ability to take a deverbal head suffixed by -erei (such as Venus–Nascherey ‘Venusian nibbling’); and c) low-frequency - erei-compounds which originate from inherited idiomatic compound verbs (such as Ehebrecherei ‘adultery’, lit. ‘marriage-breakery’ > ehebrechen (V) ‘to commit adultery’, lit. ‘to marriage-break’). The paper delineates the three developments for different word formation types which lead to the morphological distribution of present-day German.


2019 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-85
Author(s):  
John M. Jeep

Abstract A fourteenth-century version of Notker’s translation of the psalms with commentary yields 58 alliterating Middle High German word-pairs. These are compared with Notker’s original Old High German text, whereby phonological, morphological, semantic and syntactic changes are noted. In studying the transmission of the Biblical text, both continuity and change become evident.


PMLA ◽  
1961 ◽  
Vol 76 (4-Part1) ◽  
pp. 326-329
Author(s):  
Gustav Must

Special interest in the German word Ehre was aroused forty years ago when Gustav Ehrismann dealt with Middle High German ere as one of the three cardinal virtues of the age of chivalry (“Die Grundlagen des ritterlichen Tugendsystems,” Zeitschrift für deutsches Alter-tum, LVI, 1919, 137–216). Since then this word has been repeatedly discussed by scholars, e.g., by E. R. Curtius (who opposed Ehrismann's views), Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstädt (in her detailed semantic study of the word in Old High German), Friedrich Maurer (in his investigations of the word in Middle High German), Eduard Neumann, and others. The same topic has also been dealt with in several dissertations, e.g., by Hildegard Emmel and by Frederik Mos-selmann.“ Recently monographs by Hans Reiner and by George Fenwick Jones have dealt with the concept of honor.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-84
Author(s):  
John M. Jeep

AbstractBuilding upon recent phraseological studies of Old High and Middle High German texts, the alliterating word pairs in the later works of Hartmann von Aue are catalogued and analyzed philologically, thus contributing to an emerging complete listing of the paired rhetorical expressions through the Early Middle High German period, here Hartmann’s major courtly Arthurian romance, Iwein, his religious tale Gregorius, and Der arme Heinrich. Each pair is listed, described in the context in which it appears, and compared with any extant pairs from earlier German works. Previous research on the pair is reviewed. Hence, we trace the evolution of these expressions, in some cases through centuries. On the one hand, Hartmann employs alliterating expressions that date to the Old High German period, while on the other hand apparently creates new, or at least not previously documented ones. As in findings in earlier texts, pairs recorded on multiple occasions are likely to have been used by other authors. Typical for medieval German texts - when compared to similar modern expressions - is the insight that there is a fair amount of variation concerning the sequence of the alliterating elements and/or the inclusion of morpho-syntactic modifiers such as pronouns, possessives, adjectives, or adverbs. When known, later examples of the alliterating word-pairs are cited, albeit for obvious reasons only in an incomplete fashion. Two updates on the emerging Old High and Early Middle High German word-pair catalogue are included. Finally, a complete listing of the alliterating word-pairs in Hartmann’s works is provided. The long-term project continues to chart the emergence of German alliterating word-pairs chronologically, here within the first decade of the thirteenth century.


Litera ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 51-62
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Andreevna Fomicheva

Based on the compositions of pre-courteous epic poetry and chivalric romance written in the Middle High German language, this article reviews the problem of lexical polysemy in relation to the phenomena of homonymy and synonymy, as well as the problem of structural description of lexis. The need for comprehensive examination of polysemous lexemes in the Middle High German language, which includes structural analysis of the meaning of polysemous word and the lexical-thematic group and/or synonymic row it belongs to, well as the study of contextual implementation of the meanings of polysemous word, is substantiated by the principle of diffusivity of meanings of polysemous word that complicates comprising dictionary definitions and creates difficulties for the researcher in distinguishing the meanings of a polysemous word and separating polysemy from homonymy. Based on the example of lexical-thematic group for denomination of edged weapon in the Middle High German Language, the author demonstrates the appropriateness of using lexical-semantic analysis for establishing systemic relations between the analyzed lexemes, as well as postulates the importance of the context in determination of the structure of polysemous word. Discussion of the given examples from the compositions of pre-courteous epic poetry and chivalric romance written in the Middle High German language is accompanied by the author’s clarifications to the dictionary definitions of the lexemes under review. The conclusion is made on feasibility of the authorial approach towards detection of the discrepancies between lexicographic data and use of the lexeme in the texts written in the Middle High German language. The author also believes that this research is valuable from the perspective of lexicographic practice.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Raffaela Baechler

Abstract One may hear that over time languages tend to simplify their grammar and notably their morphological system. This intuition, probably based on linguists’ knowledge of the rich inflectional systems of older Indo-European languages, has been challenged, particularly by sociolinguistic typologists (e.g. Trudgill 2011; Braunmuller 1984, 2003; Nichols 1992). They hypothesise that languages spoken by small and isolated communities with a dense network may complexify their grammar (Trudgill 2011: 146-147). The present article investigates the nominal inflection systems of 14 varieties of German in order to survey whether there is any such diachronic tendency towards simplification and whether instances of complexification can be observed, too. The varieties under analysis include present-day Standard German, Old High German and Middle High German (two older stages of German) and eleven present-day non-standard varieties which make part of the Alemannic dialect group. First, it will be shown that there is a diachronic tendency towards simplification if we consider the total complexity of nominal inflection. Second, however, we can identify instances of diachronic complexification too if we take a closer look at single categories. Interestingly, diachronic complexification appears only in the non-standard varieties, not so in the standard variety. This may support the hypothesis that isolated varieties are more complex than non-isolated ones.


Author(s):  
Irina Kruashvili

The aim of the article is to describe, what word building tools express negation in modern German language; to determine the place and importance of word-forming elements expressing negation in the German word building system; to characterize the internal structure and semantics of formations expressing negation; to describe the inventory of prefix derivatives expressing negation, to classify them according to formal and semantic parameters. The article uses several methods of research. Namely, analysis of direct constituents, methods of descriptive, comparative, substantial and disjunctive opposition. The use of mentioned methods make the formal and semantic structure of word building constructions transparent. Results of the research can be described as follows: the article analyzes more than one hundred word building constructions expressing negation, fetched from lexicographical sources, journals and newspapers, fiction literature and other samples of the functional style. The article reviews the inventory of prefix derivatives having negative word building meanings, there are described their structural and semantic characteristics. The corpus of formations expressing negation is compared to the headwords of dictionaries of the German language and there are revealed the items that are not registered in dictionaries. We can make a conclusion from the materials analyzed in the article that prefixes represent very productive word building tools to express negation in the German language. The nominative function of prefix derivatives that express negation is to modify already existing words. They almost do not participate in compression of syntax constructions. During prefixation there occurs determination of the substantive or adjective root form by a morpheme prefix. Foreign (borrowed) prefixes expressing negation are mainly used in scientific special field texts, which is quite opposite for the German prefixes that mainly occur in the vocabulary of everyday conversation.


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