Volume 37, Issue 1

This paper is about the compositional interpretation of adverbial clauses as introduced by insofern als (lit. ‘insofar as’) in German (= IAs); for example, Die Lösung ist insofern attraktiv, als sie günstig ist . (lit. ‘The solution is insofar attractive as it is cheap.’). I argue that IAs always contribute dimensional restrictions, but do so in two distinct structure-sensitive ways: IAs can be structurally integrated into their host clauses and, thus, dimensionally specify a lexical component of the matrix VP (= LIAs) (‘The solution is attractive in price.’); alternatively, they can be structurally non-integrated and, thus, provide a dimension against which the matrix sentence is evaluated holistically (= SIAs) (‘In light of the fact that the solution is cheap, one may say that it is attrac­tive.’). The proposal is supported by both syntactic and semantic-pragmatic evidence: (i) LIAs and SIAs are distinguished by independently motivated tests for structural (non)integration such as scope of negation and particles, focus-background structure, and variable binding. (ii) LIAs are sensitive to a lexically given multidimensional matrix predication. SIAs, by contrast, require that the embedded clause specify an objective justification for the truth of the matrix proposition as a whole. In particular, IAs are shown to not pass tests for subjectivity as discussed for finden (‘find’); for example, judge- dependency, resistance against denial, or, accessibility of a subjective attitude. The paper concludes by sketching a formal derivation of both readings. Accordingly, LIAs constrain the dimensional parameter of multidimensional lexical predications, while SIAs provide facts that de re justify the assertibility of predications for topic situations.

This paper studies some factors governing the presence or absence of word-final schwa in German. To obtain data as homogeneous as possible we focus on three adverbs outside morphological paradigms, namely, heut(e) ‘today’, gern(e) ‘willingly’, and bald(e) ‘soon’, in one particular text type, the letters written by one and the same person, the writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832). Apart from lexical differences between the items studied and change over time, various phonological factors are shown to be important, most prominently the accent pattern of the following word (schwa tends to be present if the first syllable of the following word is accentuated), foot structure, and the initial segment of the following word. Statistical analyses, both for the individual factors and their (potential) interactions, reveal significant patterns at work behind the variation. For gern(e) the most important factors are purely phonological while for heut(e) the type of the following boundary and the position in the sentence is crucial.

The article concentrates on the German double perfect forms and tries to find an answer to the following question: is it possible to show that – contrary to traditional assumptions – the German double perfect is a systematical and therefore acceptable verbal form of German? First, the question will be substantiated by four experiments and will get an empirical answer. Secondly, a syntactic and semantic analysis of the double forms will be proposed and the empirical data will be discussed in view of this proposal.