Volume 138, Issue 1

The paper presents the approach referred to as the ›No Blur Principle‹ (NBP), aka ›Vocabular Clarity‹. This approach can account for an otherwise unexpected case of diachronic productivity in Faroese verb conjugation, viz. the spreading of the suffix -i in the present tense 3 rd sg., not associated with the largest class. Even if the NBP is meant as a synchronic restriction, the paper shows some consequences for diachrony – yielding the right ›predictions‹ (in a weak sense of the word). Given the NBP analysis of Old Norse, there is a good reason why the suffix -a, at first sight a much better candidate for productivity (as it is associated with a more type-frequent class than -i ) , could not spread – at least not without extensive ›reshuffling‹ of the affixes first; no such reshuffling was necessary for the spreading of -i , which was the ›class-default‹ affix anyway. The traditional account of the spreading of Faroese -i ,which goes back to Rask (1811, p. 279), has it that this spreading is due to influence from the subjunctive. This is problematic, because one would not normally expect affixes to spread from the subjunctive to the indicative, and because a similar development in some few dialects of Norwegian cannot plausibly be accounted for along such lines. While the NBP account does not exclude Rask’s hypothesis, it can help us overcome these problems. The fact that the NBP helps us answer questions of productivity must count in its favour, and some other arguments in its favour are also marshalled. The Faroese development also shows that productivity for affixes and words need not behave in identical fashion; thus supporting a theoretical distinction. Thanks to audiences in Oslo (ICHL 21, August 2013), Zürich (Doktorierendenkolloquium Linguistik, October 2013), Copenhagen (Dano-Norwegian seminar on historical linguistics, January 2014), Tromsø (NORKOG, June 2014), Bergen ( Forskergruppe nordisk språkvitenskap , September 2014), and Berlin (Freie Universität, December 2014), in particular to Tore Nesset, Helge Sandøy and Horst Simon. Very helpful comments on written versions have been given by Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy, Oda Røste Odden, Arne Torp and two anonymous PBB referees. Thanks for saving me from a number of embarrassing mistakes. Remaining weaknesses are my own.

The article describes different conceptions of time in vernacular texts from the Early Middle Ages (Old High German, Old Saxon and Old English texts). Contrary to older research, this study does not primarily focus on discrepancies between the Christian and Germanic content in these texts, but rather it draws heavily on new approaches of research with regard to myth: the contingent structure of time is conveyed in mythical ways of thinking and transferred into narratives. The ›Merseburg Incantations‹, the ›Wessobrunn Prayer‹ and ›Muspilli‹, but also the Old English ›Wanderer‹ devise their own models of mythical time comprehension which alternate between opposing poles, namely beginning and end, life cycle and universal time, and mythical and eschatological time.

The constitution of characters in Middle High German heroic epics is transtextual and transpersonal, yet specific to certain texts or characters. Characters can be formed by an aggregation of the recipients’ knowledge on narrative tradition or by a reduction to stereotypes. The anthropological ›rules‹ of heroic epics – collective feudal norms, transpersonal coding of emotions, the principles of heroism – are of only limited validity. Interpolations by recipients regarding the motivation of characters can be manipulated or rejected by the texts. Heterogeneity, traditionality, partially even alterity of the characters are exhibited; consistency is not necessarily intended.

Hugo’s of Montfort texts handed down in an author-commissioned manuscript are characterised by tensions between euphoric and dysphoric notions of the world which were recently described as part of a poetological concept. Complementary, this article aims at the interactions of the single texts arranged in the codex. In focusing on a sequence of songs related to the Tagelied tradition, it is additionally a contribution to the genre-theoretical debate. In this respect, a media-historical aspect shows to be relevant: Since the codex presupposes reading skills, the position of its texts in literary tradition is shaped and altered not only diachronically but also by its textual surroundings.