Die Kopula 'werden' und die Situationstypen

  • The copula "sein" "be" in German, together with its complements, refers to a stative situation. Besides offering argument positions in its Semantic Form SF, it has no other function. Stative verbs are not specified with respect to the beginning or the end of a described situation or with respect to the state before or after. I will take the verb "werden" "become, get" to be a copular verb as well. The only difference to "sein" is that "werden" refers to a nonstative or changing situation. I argue that "werden" is underspecified in two respects. Like motion verbs and successive patient verbs (SUK verbs in Krifka (1989)) "werden" switches between an unlimited and a limited process (accomplishment) dependent on its complement (cf. "älter werden" "get older" / "vorwärts gehen" "go forward" / "Tee trinken" "drink tea" vs. "alt werden" "get old" / "in das Zimmer gehen" "go into the room"/ "eine Tasse Tee trinken" "drink a cup of tea"). But "werden" is even more underspecified than these verbs; it is the only verb which covers all nonstative situations, not only processes and accomplishments but also punctual transitions (achievements), cf. "schwanger werden" "get pregnant". "Werden" is anything but stative. Whether there is a target state implied or not, or whether the transition to this target state is extensible or atomic, is the result of the composition of the meaning of "werden" and its intimal argument added by special meaning postulates. Hierarchically marked subtypes of situational arguments result as a side effect.

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Metadaten
Author:Renate Steinitz
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-307052
URL:http://www.zas.gwz-berlin.de/212.html?&L=1%27%2Band%2Bchar%28124%29%252Buser%252Bchar%28124%29%253D0%2Band%2B%27%27%253D
ISSN:1435-9588
ISSN:0947-7055
Parent Title (German):Kopula-Prädikativ-Konstruktionen als Syntax/Semantik-Schnittstellen, Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Berlin, 1999; ZASPil Vol. 14
Publisher:Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung
Place of publication:Berlin
Document Type:Part of a Book
Language:German
Date of Publication (online):2013/09/27
Year of first Publication:1999
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2013/09/27
GND Keyword:Semantik; Kopula; werden <Wort>
Volume:14
Page Number:23
First Page:165
Last Page:188
HeBIS-PPN:353121762
Dewey Decimal Classification:4 Sprache / 41 Linguistik / 410 Linguistik
Sammlungen:Linguistik
Linguistik-Klassifikation:Linguistik-Klassifikation: Semantik / Semantics
Linguistik-Klassifikation: Kontrastive Linguistik / Contrastive linguistics
Zeitschriften / Jahresberichte:ZAS papers in linguistics : ZASPiL / ZASPiL 14 = Kopula-Prädikativ-Konstruktionen als Syntax/Semantik-Schnittstellen
:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-306547
Licence (German):License LogoDeutsches Urheberrecht