Ingo Reich

Augustin Speyer

Remus Gergel

Germanic languages have been recognized as having not only intensifying or focus particles, but also so-called modal particles. The relevant items are specialized discourse markers joined by characteristic syntactic properties. After an introductory overview of the complex field, the contributions of the current volume capitalize on, but also work much further beyond the baseline of the established insights. They offer analyses of (a) new data types within and sometimes across several Germanic languages (e.g. varieties/stages of German, Dutch, or Norwegian), encompassing different classes of particles and a variety of syntactic-semantic as well as usage-based aspects; (b) the classical dichotomy between languages like German and English when it comes to the availability of modal particles both synchronically and diachronically; (c) crucial integrated insight from non-Germanic languages such as French, Hungarian, Italian, Mandarin, or Vietnamese. A number of mostly interface-based proposals of several languages as well as further generalizations are put on the table for both expert and novice readers in the field.

Particles in German, English, and Beyond

The book is concerned with the interaction of syntax, information structure and prosody in the history of English, demonstrating this with a case study of object topicalization. The approach is data-oriented, using material from syntactically parsed digital corpora of Old, Middle and Early Modern English, which serve as a solid foundation for conclusions. The use of object topicalization underwent a sharp decline from Old English until today. In the present volume, a basic prosodic well-formedness condition, the Clash Avoidance Requirement, is identified as the main factor for this change. With the loss of V2-syntax, object topicalization led more easily to cases in which two focalized phrases, the topicalized object and the subject, are adjacent. The two focal accents on these phrases would produce a clash, thus violating the Clash Avoidance Requirement. In order to circumvent this, the use of topicalization in critical cases is avoided. The Clash Avoidance Requirement is highly relevant also today, as experimental data on English and German show. Further, the Clash Avoidance Requirement helps to explain the well-known syntactic structure of the left periphery in Old English. An analysis positing two subject positions is defended in the study. The variation of these subject positions is shown to depend not on pronominal vs. lexical status of the subject but on information structural properties.

Topicalization and Stress Clash Avoidance in the History of English

"The book is concerned with the interaction of syntax, information structure and prosody in the history of English, demonstrating this with a case study of object topicalization. The approach is data-oriented, using material from syntactically parsed digital corpora of Old, Middle and Early Modern English, which serve as a solid foundation for conclusions. The use of object topicalization underwent a sharp decline from Old English until today. In the present volume, a basic prosodic well-formedness condition, the Clash Avoidance Requirement, is identified as the main factor for this change. With the loss of V2-syntax, object topicalization led more easily to cases in which two focalized phrases, the topicalized object and the subject, are adjacent. The two focal accents on these phrases would produce a clash, thus violating the Clash Avoidance Requirement. In order to circumvent this, the use of topicalization in critical cases is avoided. The Clash Avoidance Requirement is highly relevant also today, as experimental data on English and German show. Further, the Clash Avoidance Requirement helps to explain the well-known syntactic structure of the left periphery in Old English. An analysis positing two subject positions is defended in the study. The variation of these subject positions is shown to depend not on pronominal vs. lexical status of the subject but on information structural properties."--Publisher's website.

Alle Kerngebiete der deutschen Sprachwissenschaft werden in diesem Studienbuch konzentriert und einprägsam erklärt: Textlinguistik, Pragmatik, Syntax, Wortbildung, Flexionsmorphologie, Semantik und Phonologie. Hinzu kommen Kapitel zu wichtigen Themen wie Erstspracherwerb, Sprachverarbeitung und Sprachwandel.Von zwei Experten der universitären Lehre verfasst und in der Praxis erprobt, liefert dieses klar strukturierte Grundlagenbuch genau das, was Studierende im Grundstudium der Germanistik oder Linguistik brauchen. Didaktisch geschickt ausgewählte Beispiele und Abbildungen veranschaulichen den komplexen Stoff. Wertvolle Literaturhinweise und ein Sachregister machen den Band auch als Nachschlagewerk nutzbar. ›Reclams Studienbuch Germanistik‹ bietet Fachwissen für das germanistische Grundstudium und darüber hinaus: - Klar strukturiert - Verständlich formuliert - Praxisnah auf den Punkt gebracht E-Book mit Seitenzählung der gedrucketn Ausgabe: Buch und E-Book können parallel benutzt werden.

Augustin Speyer

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