Informational aspects of the extraposition of relative clauses
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Sophia Voigtmann
Abstract
This paper investigates the correlation of information structure (givenness) and the extraposition of relative clauses from Early New High German (16th century) to early Modern German (19th century) via a corpus study of letters. It aims to determine whether relative clauses with a high proportion of new referents are more likely to be extraposed because new referents put more strain on the working memory and can therefore be better interpreted at a position where more memory capacities are available again (Gibson 1989) and help spread the information of the whole sentence more evenly (Levy & Jaeger 2007). Another goal of the paper is to show that there is a decreasing influence of information structure on extraposition over the centuries. It will be shown that there is evidence for both hypotheses put forward in the paper.
Abstract
This paper investigates the correlation of information structure (givenness) and the extraposition of relative clauses from Early New High German (16th century) to early Modern German (19th century) via a corpus study of letters. It aims to determine whether relative clauses with a high proportion of new referents are more likely to be extraposed because new referents put more strain on the working memory and can therefore be better interpreted at a position where more memory capacities are available again (Gibson 1989) and help spread the information of the whole sentence more evenly (Levy & Jaeger 2007). Another goal of the paper is to show that there is a decreasing influence of information structure on extraposition over the centuries. It will be shown that there is evidence for both hypotheses put forward in the paper.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- Interface phenomena and language change 1
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Part I. Interface phenomena at the intrasentential level
- Information structure and Jespersen’s cycle 35
- The object position in Old Norwegian 61
- Bare quantifiers and Verb Second 95
- On the role of information structure in the licensing of null subjects in Old High German 123
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Part II. Interface phenomena at the intersentential level
- Gehen as a new auxiliary in German 165
- Discourse-driven asymmetries between embedded interrogatives and relative clauses in West Germanic 189
- Discourse relations and the German prefield 215
- Informational aspects of the extraposition of relative clauses 235
- Index 253
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- Interface phenomena and language change 1
-
Part I. Interface phenomena at the intrasentential level
- Information structure and Jespersen’s cycle 35
- The object position in Old Norwegian 61
- Bare quantifiers and Verb Second 95
- On the role of information structure in the licensing of null subjects in Old High German 123
-
Part II. Interface phenomena at the intersentential level
- Gehen as a new auxiliary in German 165
- Discourse-driven asymmetries between embedded interrogatives and relative clauses in West Germanic 189
- Discourse relations and the German prefield 215
- Informational aspects of the extraposition of relative clauses 235
- Index 253
