Competing constraints on Vorfeldbesetzung in german
- The filling of the 'Vorfeld' in German sentences is basically obligatory; which constituent, however, actually moves to the Vorfeld is underdetermined by syntax and thus governed presumably by discourse factors. Coming from English, there are certain competing expectations one could have: either the topic — more specifically, the backward-looking center — of a sentence is moved to the Vorfeld, or an element in a poset relationship to a set mentioned in the previous discourse, or elements with other functions, such as the exposition of brand-new information or the setting of a scene. A study of a corpus of texts of different stylistic levels showed that indeed all elements expected to appear in the Vorfeld are eligible for Vorfeld-movement, but that there is a strict ranking. Preferred Vorfeld-fillers are phrases containing brand-new information as well as scene-setting elements; only if no such elements are present can elements in a poset relationship with some previously mentioned set be moved to the Vorfeld. Finally, if such elements are not present either, backward-looking centers can move to the Vorfeld. Backward-looking centers have, for this reason, a relatively poor quota among Vorfeld-fillers, namely around 50%.
Author: | Augustin Speyer |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-309121 |
URL: | http://www.zas.gwz-berlin.de/193.html?&L=0%20order%20by%201000%20-- |
ISSN: | 1435-9588 |
ISSN: | 0947-7055 |
Parent Title (English): | Proceedings of the Dislocated Elements Workshop : ZAS Berlin, November 2003 / Ed.: Benjamin Shaer ... , Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung, Berlin, 2004; ZAS papers in linguistics Vol. 35 |
Publisher: | Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung |
Place of publication: | Berlin |
Document Type: | Part of a Book |
Language: | English |
Date of Publication (online): | 2013/11/14 |
Year of first Publication: | 2004 |
Publishing Institution: | Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg |
Release Date: | 2013/11/14 |
GND Keyword: | Sprachstatistik; Informationsstruktur; Thema-Rhema-Gliederung; Wortstellung; Extraposition; Deutsch |
Volume: | 35 |
Page Number: | 23 |
First Page: | 519 |
Last Page: | 541 |
HeBIS-PPN: | 381234363 |
Dewey Decimal Classification: | 4 Sprache / 43 Deutsch, germanische Sprachen allgemein / 430 Germanische Sprachen; Deutsch |
Sammlungen: | Germanistik / GiNDok |
Linguistik | |
BDSL-Klassifikation: | 02.00.00 Deutsche Sprachwissenschaft (in Auswahl) / BDSL-Klassifikation: 02.00.00 Deutsche Sprachwissenschaft > 02.05.00 Grammatik |
Linguistik-Klassifikation: | Linguistik-Klassifikation: Syntax |
Linguistik-Klassifikation: Quantitative Linguistik / Quantitative linguistics | |
Zeitschriften / Jahresberichte: | ZAS papers in linguistics : ZASPiL / ZASPiL 35 = Proceedings of the Dislocated Elements Workshop : ZAS Berlin, November 2003 |
: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-306777 |
Licence (German): | Deutsches Urheberrecht |