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In my paper, I show that the so-called German right dislocation actually comprises two distinct constructions, which I label 'right dislocation proper' and 'afterthought'. These differ in their prosodic and syntactic properties, as well as in their discourse functions. The paper is primarily concerned with the right dislocation proper (RD). I present a semantic analysis of RD based on the 'separate performative' account of Potts (2004, 2005) and Portner (forthc.). This analysis allows a description of the semantic contribution of RD to its host sentence, as well as explaining certain semantic constraints on the kind of NP in the RD construction.
In a recent contribution to a long-standing discussion in semantics as to whether the neo-Davidsonian analysis should be extended to stative predicates or not, Maienborn (2004, 2005) proposes to distinguish two types of statives; one of them is said to have a referential argument of the Davidsonian type, the other not. As one of her arguments for making such a distinction, Maienborn observes that manner modification seems to be supported only by certain statives but to be excluded by others (thus linking the issue to the use of manner modification as one major argument in favour of event semantics, cf. Parsons 1990). In this paper, it is argued that the absence of manner modification with Maienborn's second group of statives is actually due to a failure of conceptual construal: modification of a predicate is ruled out whenever its internal conceptual structure is too poor to provide a construal for the modifier; hence, the effects observed by Maienborn reduce to the fact that eventive predicates have a more complex conceptual substructure than stative ones. Hence, the issue of manner modification with statives is shown to be orthogonal to questions of logical form and event semantics. The explanatory power of the conceptual approach is demonstrated with a case study on predicates of light emission, adapting the representation format of Barsalou's (1992) frame model.
This paper investigates the semantic underpinnings of the distinction between two syntactic types of "manner of movement" verbs in Levin (1993), namely the RUN and ROLL classes. According to Levin's (1993) and Levin & Rappaport's (1995) work on unaccusativity, a semantic factor of "internal causation" should be the trigger for the classification of a movement verb as intransitive (=not-unaccusative), and hence for its belonging to the RUN class. We point out empirical problems for this characterisation, mainly coming from the different readings of the German verb fliegen (fly). From a comparison with other semantically similar verbs, we conclude that the semantic description which underlies the class distinction should be refined: instead of "internal causation", the crucial semantic factor is described here as "inherent specification for a momentum of movement". This result indicates that forces, and relations between forces, have to be part of the semantic description of the manner component in movement verbs.
The German causal preposition durch ('by', 'through') poses a challenge to formal-semantic analyses applying strict compositionality. To deal with this challenge, a formalism which builds on recent important developments in Discourse Representation Theory is developed, including a more elaborate analysis of presuppositional phenomena as well as the integration into the theory of unification as a mode of composition. It is argued that that the observed unificational phenomena belong in the realm of pragmatics, providing an argument for presuppositional phenomena at a sentence- and word-internal level.
This paper presents two experimental studies investigating the processing of presupposed content. Both studies employ the German additive particle auch (too). In the first study, participants were given a questionnaire containing bi-clausal, ambiguous sentences with 'auch' in the second clause. The presupposition introduced by auch was only satisfied on one of the two readings of the sentence, and this reading corresponded to a syntactically dispreferred parse of the sentence. The prospect of having the auch-presupposition satisfied made participants choose this syntactically dispreferred reading more frequently than in a control condition. The second study used the self-paced-reading paradigm and compared the reading times on clauses containing auch, which differed in whether the presupposition of auch was satisfied or not. Participants read the clause more slowly when the presupposition was not satisfied. It is argued that the two studies show that presuppositions play an important role in online sentence comprehension and affect the choice of syntactic analysis. Some theoretical implications of these findings for semantic theory and dynamic accounts of presuppositions as well as for theories of semantic processing are discussed.
This study outlines the formation of the category of "modal verb" within the grammaticography of German from the beginnings in the 16th century up to its "canonization" in the first half of the 20th century, also showing certain parallels to the treatment of modal verbs in the grammaticography of Portuguese. It also describes the influence German grammaticography had on the formation of this category in the grammaticography of Portuguese.
Die Erzählfähigkeit eines zweisprachig aufwachsenden Geschwisterpaares: eine exemplarische Analyse
(2006)
This paper describes the ability of German-Portuguese bilingual siblings to narrate in German. The paper deals with the underlying theory of 'Functional Pragmatics' and describes within this theory the complex verbal pattern of narration in everyday life. In order to do this, a selected corpus will be analysed focussing on the conditions and characteristics of narration.
Das bresilionische Deitsch unn die deitsche Bresilioner : en Hunsrickisch Red fo die Sprocherechte
(2006)
This paper is a contribution of the area of linguistic policies to the discussion of linguistic rights of speakers of minority languages in Brazil. The text, bilingual in Portuguese and Hunsrückisch, one of the varieties of German immigration languages spoken in Brazil, was presented by the authors (as native speakers and translators), in the Legislative Seminar on Creation of the Book of Language Registers, organized by the Institute of National Artistic Heritage (IPHAN), Institute of Investigation and Development in Linguistic Policies (IPOL) and Education and Culture Committee of the Chamber of Representatives, in Brasília, on March 2006. The idea of the Book of Languages contributes to the recognition of Brazilian linguistic diversity, represented by approximately 210 languages, from which 180 are autochthonous (indigenous) and around 30 are allochthonous (of immigration). Its recognition as an immaterial (virtual) cultural heritage is seem as an important act in favor of speakers’ linguistic rights and against linguistic prejudice that comes along with the use of minority languages in contact with the Portuguese language. This work is inserted in this perspective and it comes along with a supportive bibliography and a map of bilingual areas in the south of Brazil.
Die synchrone wie diachrone Untersuchung von vier Passivauxiliaren in der deutschen Standardsprache und in deutschen Dialekten, im Schwedischen und im Luxemburgischen liefert deutliche Evidenz dafür, dass Vollverben nicht direkt zu Passivauxiliaren grammatikalisieren, sondern dass dieser Pfad über die Inchoativkopula verläuft. Inchoativkopulas sind soweit grammatikalisiert (und damit reduziert), dass sie über den Weg einer Reanalyse zu Vorgangspassivauxiliaren mutieren können: Erst verbinden sie sich mit (prädikativen) Substantiven, dann mit Adjektiven und schließlich partizipialen Verben. Bereits im Kopulastadium haben sie sich (sofern vorhanden gewesen) ihres Dativ- und Akkusativobjekts entledigt (Intransitivierung). Das Subjekt ist nach seiner Entkoppelung mit dem Agens eine neue Koppelung mit dem Patiens eingegangen. Damit hat die einstige Handlungsperspektive eine Umkehr zur Geschehensperspektive erfahren. Diese Schritte dokumentiert die folgende Figur: .... Als weniger problematisch hat sich, bedingt durch die Ausgangssemantik, der Grammatikalisierungspfad bei nhd. werden, bair.lalem. kommen und schwed. bli erwiesen im Gegensatz zu lux. ginn 'geben', das in jeder Hinsicht die stärksten Reduktionen erfahren hat und einen besonders langen, verschlungenen und "steinigen" Weg absolviert hat. Mit Sicherheit kann geben nicht als Idealkandidat für Passivgrarnmatikalisierungen gelten. Nur so lässt sich erklären, weshalb diese Grarnmatikalisierung in anderen Sprachen der Welt bisher nicht beobachtet wurde.
In this paper I argue in favor of a Matching Analysis for German relative clauses. The Head Raising Analysis is shown to fail to account for parts of the reconstruction pattern in German, especially cases where only the external head is interpreted and the absence of Principle C effects. I propose a Matching Analysis with Vehicle Change and make consistent assumptions about possible deletion operations in relatives so that the entire pattern can be captured by one analysis which therefore proves superior to previous ones.