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A constructional account of the modal particle ‘ja’ in Texas German

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

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface 1
  4. Part I. Constructions in contact
  5. Construction Grammar and language contact 5
  6. Grammar is community-specific 37
  7. Part II. Constructional variation and change in contact
  8. Towards a constructional analysis of the progressive aspect in Texas German 73
  9. Tense and aspect marking in (Low) German perfect constructions based on variety contact 115
  10. Distributional assimilation in constructional semantics 143
  11. Part III. Item-based patterns and constructional generalizations in contact
  12. Constructions as cross-linguistic generalizations over instances 181
  13. Texas German and English word order constructions in contact 211
  14. Part IV. Semantic frames in contact
  15. A constructional account of the modal particle ‘ja’ in Texas German 253
  16. Frames change in language contact environments 277
  17. Author index 311
  18. Index of constructions 313
  19. Subject index 315
Constructions in Contact
This chapter is in the book Constructions in Contact
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.24.08boa

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface 1
  4. Part I. Constructions in contact
  5. Construction Grammar and language contact 5
  6. Grammar is community-specific 37
  7. Part II. Constructional variation and change in contact
  8. Towards a constructional analysis of the progressive aspect in Texas German 73
  9. Tense and aspect marking in (Low) German perfect constructions based on variety contact 115
  10. Distributional assimilation in constructional semantics 143
  11. Part III. Item-based patterns and constructional generalizations in contact
  12. Constructions as cross-linguistic generalizations over instances 181
  13. Texas German and English word order constructions in contact 211
  14. Part IV. Semantic frames in contact
  15. A constructional account of the modal particle ‘ja’ in Texas German 253
  16. Frames change in language contact environments 277
  17. Author index 311
  18. Index of constructions 313
  19. Subject index 315
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