The role of the definite article in the rise of the German Framing Principle
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Elke Ronneberger-Sibold
Abstract
This paper develops ideas broached in Ronneberger-Sibold (2010) on the origins of the divergent typological developments of English towards a “classical” analytic S-V-O language, and German into a “framing” language, in which the dominating typologically relevant feature is the framing of different constituents by two elements related to each other, such that the recipient can conclude from the appearance of the first element that the constituent in question will not be complete before the second element appears. This principle was discovered and gradually implemented by German language users in a self-fortifying process from OHG on. To isolate specifically OHG prerequisites for this process, two comparable alliterative poems, one in each language, were analysed with respect to separable verbal complexes, verb position as a marker of sentence type, and the structure of complex noun-phrases. The most radical differences concerned the noun-phrase, and particularly the definite article, whereas the differences in verb position were less pronounced. Therefore, a scenario of the first steps of the typological divergence is outlined in which the OHG definite article plays a decisive role.
Abstract
This paper develops ideas broached in Ronneberger-Sibold (2010) on the origins of the divergent typological developments of English towards a “classical” analytic S-V-O language, and German into a “framing” language, in which the dominating typologically relevant feature is the framing of different constituents by two elements related to each other, such that the recipient can conclude from the appearance of the first element that the constituent in question will not be complete before the second element appears. This principle was discovered and gradually implemented by German language users in a self-fortifying process from OHG on. To isolate specifically OHG prerequisites for this process, two comparable alliterative poems, one in each language, were analysed with respect to separable verbal complexes, verb position as a marker of sentence type, and the structure of complex noun-phrases. The most radical differences concerned the noun-phrase, and particularly the definite article, whereas the differences in verb position were less pronounced. Therefore, a scenario of the first steps of the typological divergence is outlined in which the OHG definite article plays a decisive role.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
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Section I. “From pragmatic to semantic definiteness”
- A complex grammaticalization scenario for the definite article 17
- The grammaticalization of the definite article in German 43
- What genericity reveals about the establishment of the definite determiner in German 75
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Section II. “Syntactic contexts, cognition and grammaticalization”
- The role of the definite article in the rise of the German Framing Principle 97
- Cliticization of definite articles to prepositions in Middle High German – early stages of grammaticalization? 129
- Absence as evidence 161
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Section III. “From definite into onymic article – and finally onymic classifier”
- The rise of the onymic article in Early New High German 199
- Die Capital – der Astra – das Adler 227
- Index 251
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Section I. “From pragmatic to semantic definiteness”
- A complex grammaticalization scenario for the definite article 17
- The grammaticalization of the definite article in German 43
- What genericity reveals about the establishment of the definite determiner in German 75
-
Section II. “Syntactic contexts, cognition and grammaticalization”
- The role of the definite article in the rise of the German Framing Principle 97
- Cliticization of definite articles to prepositions in Middle High German – early stages of grammaticalization? 129
- Absence as evidence 161
-
Section III. “From definite into onymic article – and finally onymic classifier”
- The rise of the onymic article in Early New High German 199
- Die Capital – der Astra – das Adler 227
- Index 251
