'No' changes: On the history of German indefinite determiners in the scope of negation
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Agnes Jäger
Abstract
This paper investigates the evolution of nominal determination of a specific kind, viz. indefinite determination in the scope of negation. Four basic syntactic patterns of indefi nite nominal determination in the scope of negation are distinguished. The changes within the system of indefi nite determination in the history of German with respect to these four patterns are described on the basis of their distribution in a corpus of several Old and Middle High German texts. More specifi cally, the development and distribution of dehein / kein is investigated. While the original n-word determiner nehein (‘no’) and the second NPI (negative polarity item) determiner einig (‘any’) were virtually lost, dehein / kein changed from a weak NPI comparable to any and licensed in various non-affirmative contexts into an n-word.
Abstract
This paper investigates the evolution of nominal determination of a specific kind, viz. indefinite determination in the scope of negation. Four basic syntactic patterns of indefi nite nominal determination in the scope of negation are distinguished. The changes within the system of indefi nite determination in the history of German with respect to these four patterns are described on the basis of their distribution in a corpus of several Old and Middle High German texts. More specifi cally, the development and distribution of dehein / kein is investigated. While the original n-word determiner nehein (‘no’) and the second NPI (negative polarity item) determiner einig (‘any’) were virtually lost, dehein / kein changed from a weak NPI comparable to any and licensed in various non-affirmative contexts into an n-word.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction 1
-
Part 1. Synchrony – and its implications for diachrony
- Discourse binding: DP and pronouns in German, Dutch, and English 21
- Gender, number, and indefinite articles: About the 'typological inconsistency' of Italian 49
- Covert patterns of definiteness/indefiniteness and aspectuality in Old Icelandic, Gothic, and Old High German 73
- The definite article in Indo-European: Emergence of a new grammatical category? 103
- 'No' changes: On the history of German indefinite determiners in the scope of negation 141
-
Part 2. Synchrony – ontological and typological characteristics
- The functional range of bare singular count nouns in English 171
- The definite article in non-specific object noun phrases: Comparing French and Italian 189
- Early functions of definite determiners and DPs in German first language acquisition 215
-
Part 3. Diachrony – universally unified characteristics?
- The discourse-functional crystallization of DP from the original demonstrative 241
- Determinerless noun phrases in Old Romance passives 257
- On the structure and development of nominal phrases in Norwegian 287
- The emergence of DP from a perspective of ontogeny and phylogeny: Correlation between DP, TP and aspect in Old English and first language acquisition 311
- Demonstratives and possessives: From Old English to present-day English 339
- Index 363
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction 1
-
Part 1. Synchrony – and its implications for diachrony
- Discourse binding: DP and pronouns in German, Dutch, and English 21
- Gender, number, and indefinite articles: About the 'typological inconsistency' of Italian 49
- Covert patterns of definiteness/indefiniteness and aspectuality in Old Icelandic, Gothic, and Old High German 73
- The definite article in Indo-European: Emergence of a new grammatical category? 103
- 'No' changes: On the history of German indefinite determiners in the scope of negation 141
-
Part 2. Synchrony – ontological and typological characteristics
- The functional range of bare singular count nouns in English 171
- The definite article in non-specific object noun phrases: Comparing French and Italian 189
- Early functions of definite determiners and DPs in German first language acquisition 215
-
Part 3. Diachrony – universally unified characteristics?
- The discourse-functional crystallization of DP from the original demonstrative 241
- Determinerless noun phrases in Old Romance passives 257
- On the structure and development of nominal phrases in Norwegian 287
- The emergence of DP from a perspective of ontogeny and phylogeny: Correlation between DP, TP and aspect in Old English and first language acquisition 311
- Demonstratives and possessives: From Old English to present-day English 339
- Index 363
