Volume 136, Issue 2

According to Bybee (1985, 1994), the relevance of one linguistic sign to another determines its formal expression as either lexical, morphological or syntactic. Highly relevant categories are predicted to be situated closer to the lexical root, i. e. by inflectional or derivational expression, whereas less relevant categories are more likely to be expressed periphrastically or syntactically. Nübling/Dammel (2004) show that relevance plays an important role in the diachronic reorganization of verbal inflection in German. We propose that this also applies to the diachronic development of the nominal categories in German, which is characterized by two major principles: levelling of caseforms versus maintenance and (even) strengthening of the more relevant number category. However, relevance is not the only principle shaping the diachronic reorganization of nominal inflection. We argue that a low degree of grammaticalization may counteract relevance as it usually correlates with low syntagmatic cohesion and high semantic specificity. Furthermore, we show that typological properties may interfere with the relevance criterion: The periphrastic expression of the relevant category of definiteness within the DP satisfies the overall tendency of German to express grammatical categories discontinuously through framing constructions (›Klammerprinzip‹). Another exception is the ›weak masculine declension‹ which contains mainly nouns denoting highly animate referents. We propose that animacy may alter the relevance hierarchy in the sense that demarcation of thematic roles (agent vs. others) through case marking is more important for highly animate referents than number marking.

›Nibelungenlied‹ and ›Kudrun‹ display deliberate use of comic elements and of heroic irony. In a first step, my paper retraces the role that comedy and irony play in the teleological development toward the downfall in the ›Nibelungenlied‹. In a second step, I argue that ›Kudrun‹ deconstructs the ›Nibelungen‹ poetics of comedy and specifically includes them in its new, hybrid concept of storytelling. The hitherto neglected aspect of a structured use of comedy and irony in the epics allows for a new perspective not only on ›Nibelungenlied‹ and ›Kudrun‹, but also on the availability of comedy in medieval vernacular poetics in general.

The meaning of ›folly‹ in Sebastian Brant’s ›Ship of Fools‹ has been keenly and prominently debated by scholarship. Undoubtedly, Brant’s conception of folly integrates various semantic layers. Yet one, the Cockaigne layer, has been largely neglected. In his depiction of the fictional space of Narragonia, Brant draws on various Cockaigne motives, which emanate from a centuries-old, predominantly oral literary tradition. Developing these motives in his own poetic manner, Brant initiates the German Cockaigne literature of the 16th and 17th century. An analysis of the Cockaigne layer sheds new light on Brant’s conception of folly and reveals the partial synonymy of Narragonia and Cockaigne.