Frames change in language contact environments
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David Hünlich
Abstract
Based on the empirical data of 97 fourth-graders from three districts of Braunschweig in Germany, this paper investigates the possibility of changing semantic frames in multilingual communities. The focus of study is the verb field of self-motion. In a free-sorting task involving 52 verbs, Turkish-speaking students, in particular, placed the verbs schleichen (‘to sneak’) and kommen (‘to come’) in the same group. When explaining the perceived similarity they also used the word schleichen (‘to sneak’), in a specific grammatical construction that is not found in Standard German. This paper suggests that semantic frames may change along with grammatical constructions when typologically distinct languages come into close contact.
Abstract
Based on the empirical data of 97 fourth-graders from three districts of Braunschweig in Germany, this paper investigates the possibility of changing semantic frames in multilingual communities. The focus of study is the verb field of self-motion. In a free-sorting task involving 52 verbs, Turkish-speaking students, in particular, placed the verbs schleichen (‘to sneak’) and kommen (‘to come’) in the same group. When explaining the perceived similarity they also used the word schleichen (‘to sneak’), in a specific grammatical construction that is not found in Standard German. This paper suggests that semantic frames may change along with grammatical constructions when typologically distinct languages come into close contact.
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
