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The volume assembles eleven articles presenting a linguistic
approach to the grammar of German, English and the diachronic
forerunners of English. Common to all is a theoretical discussion
against the background of Chomskyan minimalism (1993) and more
recent developments of it (Kayne 1993, Chomsky 1995), all of which
make language typology comparisons an interesting proposition. Some
of the articles are critical of certain aspects of these
theoretical approaches. For all their claims to descriptive
universality, it transpires that they fail to address a number of
features specific to German.
Modality is the way a speaker modifies her declaratives and other
speech acts to optimally assess the common ground of knowledge and
belief of the addressee with the aim to optimally achieve
understanding and an assessment of relevant information exchange.
In languages such as German (and other Germanic languages outside
of English), this may happen in covert terms. Main categories used
for this purpose are modal adverbials ("modal particles") and modal
verbs. Epistemic uses of modal verbs (like German sollen) cover
evidential (reportative) information simultaneously providing the
source of the information. Methodologically, description and
explanation rest on Karl Buhler's concept of Origo as well as Roman
Jakobson's concept of shifter. Typologically, East Asian languages
such as Japanese pursue these semasiological fundaments far more
closely than the European languages. In particular, Japanese has to
mark the source of a statement in the declarative mode such that
the reliability may be assessed by the hearer. The contributions in
this collection provide insight into these modal techniques.
What do we mean when we say things like 'If only we knew what he
was up to!' Clearly this is more than just a message, or a question
to our addressee. We are expressing simultaneously that we don't
know, and also that we wish to know. Several modes of encoding
contribute to such modalities of expression: word order,
subordinating subjunctions, sentences that are subordinated but
nevertheless occur autonomously, and attitudinal discourse adverbs
which, far beyond lexical adverbials of modality, allow the speaker
and the listener to presuppose full agreement, partial agreement
under presupposed conditions, or negotiation of common ground. This
state of the art survey proposes a new model of modality, drawing
on data from a variety of Germanic and Slavic languages to find out
what is cross-linguistically universal about modality, and to argue
that it is a constitutive part of human cognition.
TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS is a series of books that open new
perspectives in our understanding of language. The series publishes
state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across
theoretical frameworks, as well as studies that provide new
insights by approaching language from an interdisciplinary
perspective. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS considers itself a forum for
cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in
its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards
linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as
well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for
a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the
ecology and evolution of language. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS publishes
monographs and outstanding dissertations as well as edited volumes,
which provide the opportunity to address controversial topics from
different empirical and theoretical viewpoints. High quality
standards are ensured through anonymous reviewing.
The term modality encompasses a number of categories: modal verbs,
modal particles, and confirmatory questions. This volume examines,
on the one hand, the common features of basic modal and epistemic
versions of modal verbs, and, on the other, modal particles. What
level of certainty do words of this kind communicate to the
listener? This is the key question posed by the work."
What do we mean when we say things like 'If only we knew what he
was up to!' Clearly this is more than just a message, or a question
to our addressee. We are expressing simultaneously that we don't
know, and also that we wish to know. Several modes of encoding
contribute to such modalities of expression: word order,
subordinating subjunctions, sentences that are subordinated but
nevertheless occur autonomously, and attitudinal discourse adverbs
which, far beyond lexical adverbials of modality, allow the speaker
and the listener to presuppose full agreement, partial agreement
under presupposed conditions, or negotiation of common ground. This
state of the art survey proposes a new model of modality, drawing
on data from a variety of Germanic and Slavic languages to find out
what is cross-linguistically universal about modality, and to argue
that it is a constitutive part of human cognition.
Aus dem Inhalt: Werner Abraham und Gert Webelhuth Words of
dedication for Hartmut Czepluch Werner Abraham Introduction John H.
McWhorter What happened to English? Halldor Armann Sigurdsson Agree
and Agreement - Evidence from Germanic Johanna Barddal The
semantics of the impersonal construction in Icelandic, German and
Faroese: beyond thematic roles Cedric Boeckx und Kleanthes K.
Grohmann Left dislocation in Germanic Jac C. Conradie Verb sequence
and placement: Afrikaans and Dutch compared Hartmut Czepluch
((Sterbezeichen)) Reflections on the form and function of passives
in English and German Molly Diesing The upper functional domain in
Yiddish Bridget Drinka Prateritumschwund: evidence for areal
difussion Werner Abraham The European demise of the simple past and
the emergence of the periphrastic perfect: Areal diffusion or
natural, autonomous evolution under parsing facilitation? Laszlo
Molnarfi Some remarks on the formal typology of pronouns in West
Germanic Rolf Thieroff The subjunctive mood in German and in the
Germanic languages"
Das Studium von Dialekten stellt einen wichtigen Bereich in der
vergleichenden Syntaxforschung dar, der aber in bezug auf die
germanischen Sprachen bislang noch stark vernachlassigt ist. Mit
dieser Sammlung von dialektsyntaktischen Arbeiten soll ein Anfang
gemacht werden, dialektale Varietaten des Deutschen, Friesischen,
Jiddischen und Niederlandischen hinsichtlich neuerer Entwicklungen
der Syntaxtheorie zu untersuchen. Den theoretischen Rahmen bildet
bei der Mehrzahl der Beitrage die Prinzipien- und Parametertheorie,
die sich in der vergleichenden Syntaxforschung bewahrt hat.
Grammatische Phanomene, die thematisiert werden, umfassen klitische
Pronomina, das Kasussystem, Infinitivkonstruktionen, Wortstellung
und Kongruenz."
This typological overview compares the degree to which different
languages have means to give expression to modality (possibility,
necessity) without lexical and direct inflectional means. The
criterial patterns derive from a variety of languages such as
German, English, Chinese, French, Scandinavian, Italian, Romanian,
Russian, Polish, and Gothic as well as Old High German. They
encompass mainly the auxiliaries HAVE and BE, together with either
an infinitival embedding of a full verb linked by the infinitival
preposition TO, or other aspectual means. It is demonstrated that
what appears as typical covert modal expressions in the Germanic
languages, and the Indo-European ones in a wider sense, cannot be
seen as a recurrent pattern in non-Indo-European languages. Yet,
there are recurrent and plausible forms that allow for
generalizations.
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