Unable to retrieve citations for this document
Retrieving citations for document...
Abstract
Parenthetical constructions in German like der Minister des Inneren leidet, (so) sagt man/wie man sagt, an Paranoia are subject to certain restrictions if the host clause is an interrogative and the verb of the reduced parenthetical selects a declarative complement clause: ??wen hat, so glaubt Theo, Franz beleidigt? . According to a quite common conception, a requirement of sentence mood agreement is responsible for the distributional facts. It is the goal of this article to show that this condition fails to account for the facts. Insertion of a parenthetical into an interrogative host is constrained by conditions on reconstruction of the propositional content of the parenthetical's silent complement. In the case of non-agreement, three different types of reduced parentheticals have to be considered in German: verbfirst, so - and wie -parentheticals, which slightly differ with respect to their insertion into an interrogative host. The presuppositon of the interrogative host has to provide for the content of a V1-parenthetical's complement. In so -parentheticals the Adverb so introduces reference to the form of the host, which must be compatible with the canonical form of the verb's complement. wie -parentheticals function as free relative adverbial clauses that constitute a comparative modification of both the host and the parenthetical. Finally, person specification comes into play as an independent factor.
Unable to retrieve citations for this document
Retrieving citations for document...
Abstract
Contemporary German abounds in doubtful cases where linking elements alternate with zero elements, such as Seminar(+s?+)arbeit ‘term paper’, Respekt(+s?+)person ‘person who commands respect”. This variation indicates a profound language change in the course of which the linking +s+ has spread continuously since Early New High German and is replacing the zero element more and more often. Today, +s+ is the most productive, progressive and most frequently occurring linking element. In this paper, we provide an explanation for the doubtful cases. Most often, the linking +s+ depends directly on the phonological quality of the first part of the compound: the worse its phonological structure, the more likely the occurrence of the linking +s+ . It occurs most regularly after first parts of compounds containing a suffix or an unstressed prefix ( Verkáuf+s+gespräch ‘sales conversation’), while words with an ideal phonological structure (monosyllabic or trochaic words) rarely attract the linking +s+ . The variation concentrates on compounds whose first parts feature a stressed prefix ( Éinkauf(+s?+)führer ‘shopping guide’). There is, however, a further factor which leads to fluctuation in the occurrence of the linking +s+ . In cases where the second part of synthetic compounds such as Auftrag(+s?+)geber ‘client’ contain a high degree of verbality, the linking +s+ blurs the syntactic relation between the immediate constituents, strengthening the morphological character of the compound.
Unable to retrieve citations for this document
Retrieving citations for document...
Abstract
Recently, it has been argued that verb-first (V1) conditionals are not, as traditionally assumed, integrated into their matrix clauses, but (quasi-)paratactically adjoined to their host clause (Axel & Wöllstein, German verb-first conditionals as unintegrated clauses. A case study in converging synchronic and diachronic evidence, Mouton de Gruyter, 2009 and Reis & Wöllstein, Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft, 29: 111–179, 2010). As a consequence, the host clause of a left-peripheral V1-conditional clause is considered to be either a V1-declarative sentence or an elliptical V2-declarative sentence. The authors argue with semantic and syntactic properties of V1-clauses and also present diachronic evidence for their views. It is the aim of this paper to take a close look at their arguments in order to show that some do not withstand close scrutiny and that some of the facts presented are at least compatible with other interpretations.
Unable to retrieve citations for this document
Retrieving citations for document...
Unable to retrieve citations for this document
Retrieving citations for document...
Unable to retrieve citations for this document
Retrieving citations for document...
