Volume 50, Issue 2

Light verb constructions (German ‚Funktionsverbgefüge‘) are complex predicates consisting of a semantically light verb and a phrasal element. A characteristic property of light verb constructions is that they come in families, i. e., groups of identically formed light verb constructions exemplifying different interpretation patterns. On the basis of a corpus study, the paper discusses the existence of three different families of stehen unter ‚stand under‘ light verb constructions. In a detailed study, it is demonstrated that the three families are associated with different characteristics like the semantic type of PP-internal nouns and the choice of a causative light verb.

This paper investigates personal name compounds (PN compounds) with a personal name in the second position and a lexeme or a proper name as a modifier (cf. Veggie-Renate ). Based on 1194 types from the web corpus of the Digitales Wörterbuch der Deutschen Sprache (DWDS) and Twitter, the paper aims at testing the following hypotheses from the previous studies (Wildgen 1981, Kürschner 2020): PN compounds are infrequent, irregular and bear mainly an evaluative function. By drawing on the semantic relations holding between the components of nominal compounds in German (cf. Ortner et al. 1991), we provide evidence for 15 regular semantic patterns underlying PN compounds. However, these patterns cannot fully account for the properties of PN compounds as the patterns are too abstract and neglect the contextual factors and extra-linguistic knowledge about the name bearer. Therefore, to arrive at the properties of PN compounds, semantic patterns must be pragmatically enriched in the context by taking into account the linguistic knowledge about the modifier, the linguistic context and knowledge about the name bearer that is not included in the semantic pattern. Furthermore, apart from their evaluative function, PN compounds also evoke knowledge about the name bearer’s appearance, function, occupation, origin or participation in a social event. Finally, the analysis indicates a large frequency of PN compounds in DWDS and Twitter compared to the German Reference Corpus (DeReKo).

Valence orientation is a phenomenon much discussed and debated in typology. Diachronic tendencies of individual languages have so far only been considered en passant in typological approaches such as Comrie (2006). This paper presents a preliminary pilot study on the expression and marking of the causative anticausative alternation in the history of German in a microtypological comparison with data from two other continental West-Germanic varieties, i. e. Dutch and Yiddish. This is intended to highlight possibilities, limitations, and difficulties for a research program of diachronic analysis of a possible language change process of valence orientation and valence marking.

This papers contributes to the growing body of literature on the use of conceptual metaphors to frame the COVID-19 pandemic and the corona. Whereas previous linguistic analyses have focused on the use of metaphors by politicians and in the media, this paper is concerned with German children’s books and the use of conceptual metaphors therein that involve the target domains coronavirus, virus transmission, and virus proliferation as well as counter measurements and reactions of the immune system . The analysis reveals that war -metaphors, which are salient in political and media discourse, are much less dominant in children’s books. The books systematically draw on source domains that are well entrenched in children’s everyday experience, such as police , quarrelling, partying, playing in the sandbox, jumping, surfing, and travelling . Furthermore, ontological metaphors and more specifically personifications are widespread, with the virus being construed as a curious adventurer without genuinely bad intentions, a villain or monster and even a savior. The paper is grounded in Cognitive Semantics and more specifically in Conceptual Metaphor Theory and provides multimodal analyses that pay attention to both verbally and visually expressed information and metaphorical mappings.