A constructional account of the modal particle ‘ja’ in Texas German
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Hans C. Boas
Abstract
The last decade has seen the expansion of systematic study of spoken language within Construction Grammar (Fried & Östman 2005, Östman 2006, Günthner 2006, Imo 2007). While most studies have only noted that a specific syntactic pattern may have different manifestations in spoken language and in ‘standard’ grammar, the emphasis in these studies has been on the domain of the sentence/utterance as the appropriate context of analysis (e.g. Lambrecht & Lemoine 2005). To overcome this bias, this paper presents a case study of a constructional representation and analysis of a regular patterning in natural discourse, namely the modal particle ja in Texas German, a critically endangered dialect (see Boas 2009, Boas & Pierce 2011).
Abstract
The last decade has seen the expansion of systematic study of spoken language within Construction Grammar (Fried & Östman 2005, Östman 2006, Günthner 2006, Imo 2007). While most studies have only noted that a specific syntactic pattern may have different manifestations in spoken language and in ‘standard’ grammar, the emphasis in these studies has been on the domain of the sentence/utterance as the appropriate context of analysis (e.g. Lambrecht & Lemoine 2005). To overcome this bias, this paper presents a case study of a constructional representation and analysis of a regular patterning in natural discourse, namely the modal particle ja in Texas German, a critically endangered dialect (see Boas 2009, Boas & Pierce 2011).
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface 1
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Part I. Constructions in contact
- Construction Grammar and language contact 5
- Grammar is community-specific 37
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Part II. Constructional variation and change in contact
- Towards a constructional analysis of the progressive aspect in Texas German 73
- Tense and aspect marking in (Low) German perfect constructions based on variety contact 115
- Distributional assimilation in constructional semantics 143
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Part III. Item-based patterns and constructional generalizations in contact
- Constructions as cross-linguistic generalizations over instances 181
- Texas German and English word order constructions in contact 211
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Part IV. Semantic frames in contact
- A constructional account of the modal particle ‘ja’ in Texas German 253
- Frames change in language contact environments 277
- Author index 311
- Index of constructions 313
- Subject index 315
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface 1
-
Part I. Constructions in contact
- Construction Grammar and language contact 5
- Grammar is community-specific 37
-
Part II. Constructional variation and change in contact
- Towards a constructional analysis of the progressive aspect in Texas German 73
- Tense and aspect marking in (Low) German perfect constructions based on variety contact 115
- Distributional assimilation in constructional semantics 143
-
Part III. Item-based patterns and constructional generalizations in contact
- Constructions as cross-linguistic generalizations over instances 181
- Texas German and English word order constructions in contact 211
-
Part IV. Semantic frames in contact
- A constructional account of the modal particle ‘ja’ in Texas German 253
- Frames change in language contact environments 277
- Author index 311
- Index of constructions 313
- Subject index 315
