New Benjamins title: Putnam - Studies on German-Language Islands

[Paul Peranteau]

Studies on German-Language Islands
Edited by Michael T. Putnam
The Pennsylvania State University

Studies in Language Companion Series 123

2011. xii, 477 pp.

Hardbound 978 90 272 0590 2 / EUR 105.00 / USD 158.00
e-Book 978 90 272 8740 3 / EUR 105.00 / USD 158.00


The contributions in this volume present cutting-edge theoretical and 
structural analyses of issues surrounding German-language islands, or 
Sprachinseln, throughout the world. The individual topics of study in 
this volume focus on various aspects of these German-language islands 
such as (but not limited to) phonological, morphological, syntactic, 
semantic, and pragmatic aspects of these languages under investigation. 
Collectively, the body of research contained in this volume explores 
significantly under-researched topics in the fields of language contact 
and language attrition and illustrates how this on-going research can be 
enhanced through the application of formal theoretical frameworks and 
structural analyses.

Table of contents

Table of contents i–viii
Acknowledgements vii–viii
List of abbreviations ix–x
List of contributors xi–xii
Why study Sprachinseln from generative or structural perspectives? 
Introductory remarks
Michael T. Putnam 1–10
Section 1. Phonetics & Phonology 11–64
On final laryngeal distinctions in Wisconsin Standard German
Renee Remy 13–32
Past participles in Mòcheno: Allomorphy, alignment and the distribution 
of obstruents
Birgit Alber 33–64
Section 2. Morphology & Lexical studies 65–162
Plautdietsch gender: Between Dutch and German
Annemarie Toebosch 67–110
Anaphors in contact: The distribution of intensifiers and reflexives in 
Amana German
Michael T. Putnam 111–128
Lexical developments in Texas German
Hans C. Boas and Marc Pierce 129–150
Gender assignment of English loanwords in Pennsylvania German: Is there 
a feminine tendency?
B. Richard Page 151–162
Section 3. Syntax I - Verb clusters 163–230
Synchrony and diachrony of verb clusters in Pennsylvania Dutch
Mark L. Louden 165–186
Looking for order in chaos: Standard convergence and divergence in 
Mennonite Low German
Göz Kaufmann 187–230
Section 4. Syntax II - The syntax of Cimbrian German 231–368
Spoken syntax in Cimbrian of the linguistic islands in Northern Italy- 
and what they (do not) betray about language universals and change under 
areal contact with Italo-Romance
Werner Abraham 233–278
Diachronic clues to grammaticalization phenomena in the Cimbrian CP
Andrea Padovan 279–300
Hidden verb second: The case of Cimbrian
Günther Grewendorf and Cecilia Poletto 301–346
Revisiting the Wackernagelposition: The evolution of the Cimbrian 
pronominal system
Ermenegildo Bidese 347–368
Section 5. Syntax III - The syntax of Pennsylvania German 369–412
Changes in frequency as a measure of language change: Extraposition in 
Pennsylvania German
Gesche Westphal Fitch 371–384
 From preposition to purposive to infinitival marker: The Pennsylvania 
German fer…zu construction
Kersti Börjars and Kate Burridge 385–412
Section 6. Pragmatics & Conversation analysis 413–474
Word choice, turn construction, and topic management in German 
conversation: Adverbs that are sensitive to interactional positioning
Emma Betz 415–454
Texas German discourse pragmatics: A preliminary study of the 
English-origin discourse markers of course, see, and now
Hunter Weilbacher 455–474
Index 475–478


“I do not know any area where descriptive work has as long or as 
consistently remained separate from theoretical work as in the study of 
colonial German varieties. In recent years, individual studies have 
begun to bridge that gap, but this volume is the first to achieve that 
fully, across wide-ranging theoretical frameworks, colonial varieties 
and subfields of linguistics.”
Joseph Salmons, University of Wisconsin-Madison




-- 
Paul M. Peranteau
John Benjamins Publishing
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Philadelphia PA  USA
Ph: 215 769-3444  Fax: 215 769-3446