Grammaticalization Paths of English and High German Existential Constructions. A Corpus-based Study

Par : Simone e. Pfenninger

Formats :

    • Nombre de pages369
    • ISBN978-3-0343-0021-6
    • EAN9783034300216
    • Date de parution01/06/2009
    • CollectionEuropäische Hochschulschriften
    • ÉditeurPeter Lang

    Résumé

    Existential constructions are a fundamental feature of many Indo-European languages, and constructions with non-referential subjects have developed in all of the latter, albeit at different stages in their histories. High German does not feature a prototypical existential construction that is equivalent in syntactic and pragmatic function and semantic meaning to the English existential there-construction.
    How did a prototypical existential structure originate in English ? Why is it that High German has never developed such a construction ? Has it ever shown a tendency towards developing one ? How did two closely related languages such as English and High German come to differ so much with respect to these constructions ? By means of investigating a variety of historical and contemporary data this study shows that not only semantic, pragmatic and syntactic factors are involved, which decide the choice of a certain construction, but also very much the more general different linguistic development that the two languages underwent in the course of time.
    Existential constructions are a fundamental feature of many Indo-European languages, and constructions with non-referential subjects have developed in all of the latter, albeit at different stages in their histories. High German does not feature a prototypical existential construction that is equivalent in syntactic and pragmatic function and semantic meaning to the English existential there-construction.
    How did a prototypical existential structure originate in English ? Why is it that High German has never developed such a construction ? Has it ever shown a tendency towards developing one ? How did two closely related languages such as English and High German come to differ so much with respect to these constructions ? By means of investigating a variety of historical and contemporary data this study shows that not only semantic, pragmatic and syntactic factors are involved, which decide the choice of a certain construction, but also very much the more general different linguistic development that the two languages underwent in the course of time.