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<TITLE>FW: [elpr_all 1453] FW: German MIT</TITLE>
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<FONT SIZE="5"><FONT FACE="ＭＳ Ｐゴシック"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:16.0px'>Dear Colleagues,<BR>
I am posting the following on behalf of a colleague of mine who is not a member of this.<BR>
<BR>
Tasaku Tsunoda<BR>
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<B>From: </B>KANEKO Tohru <dp2t-knk@asahi-net.or.jp><BR>
<B>Date: </B>Sat, 19 Dec 2009 09:58:57 +0900<BR>
<B>To: </B>角田 太作 <tsunoda@ninjal.ac.jp><BR>
<B>Subject: </B>Re: [elpr_all 1453] FW: German MIT<BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'><FONT FACE="ＭＳ 明朝">Dear Dr. Schulze,<BR>
</FONT><FONT FACE="ＭＳ Ｐゴシック"> <BR>
</FONT><FONT FACE="ＭＳ 明朝">you find a lot of examples in my old paper Die Partikel wa and ihre deutschen Entsprechungen in Deutsch und Japanisch in Kontrast Band 4. 1984 Groos Vlg. hrsg. von Kaneko/Stickel.<BR>
</FONT><FONT FACE="ＭＳ Ｐゴシック"><BR>
KANEKO Tohru<BR>
dp2t-knk@asahi-net.or.jp<BR>
www.ne.jp/asahi/kaneko-tohru/languages-nowar/ <a href="http://www.ne.jp/asahi/kaneko-tohru/languages-nowar/"><http://www.ne.jp/asahi/kaneko-tohru/languages-nowar/></a> <BR>
NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS, ART. 9 IN THE WORLD<BR>
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----- Original Message ----- <BR>
<BR>
<B>From:</B> 角田 太作 <a href="mailto:tsunoda@ninjal.ac.jp"><mailto:tsunoda@ninjal.ac.jp></a> <BR>
<BR>
<B>To:</B> altjapan@googlegroups.com ; elpr_all@aa.tufs.ac.jp ; aboriginal-languages@yahoogroups.jp <BR>
<BR>
<B>Sent:</B> Friday, December 18, 2009 1:48 PM<BR>
<BR>
<B>Subject:</B> [elpr_all 1453] FW: German MIT<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
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<B>From: </B>Wolfgang Schulze <W.Schulze@LRZ.UNI-MUENCHEN.DE><BR>
<B>Organization: </B>IATS LMU<BR>
<B>Reply-To: </B><W.Schulze@lrz.uni-muenchen.de><BR>
<B>Date: </B>Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:00:58 +0100<BR>
<B>To: </B><LINGTYP@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG><BR>
<B>Subject: </B>German MIT<BR>
<BR>
<FONT COLOR="#000099">Dear friends,<BR>
during a lecture on German syntax, we came across the following problem: German makes use of a topic (?) construction that goes this way:<BR>
<BR>
<B><I>Mit ihm </I></B><I>haben wir ein-en Freund verloren.<BR>
</I>with he:DAT have:PRES:1PL we INDEF-MASC:ACC friend lose:PPP<BR>
<BR>
I have difficulties to translate this into good English (my fault, sorry!): The meaning of the <I>mit-</I>NP is not instrumental or comitative, but 'identifying' or 'explicative' ('in terms of', or so), that is (here:) the anaphor is correferential with <I>Freund </I>(a paraphrase would perhaps be: 'We have lost him in terms of ~ being ~ as a friend'). This pattern also works with names or (less obvious) with ordinary nouns, such as:<BR>
<BR>
<B><I>Mit Eva</I></B><I> haben wir eine Freundin verloren.<BR>
</I>'We have lost Eva in terms of a friend' (or so). <BR>
<BR>
<B><I>Mit der Feldforschung </I></B><I>ist der erste Schritt gemacht.<BR>
</I>'The first step has been taken in terms of fieldfwork' (or so).<BR>
<BR>
This construction seems to be dependent from placing the<I> mit-</I>NP into the preverbal topic field, compare:<BR>
<BR>
<B><I>Mit Paul </I></B><I>verließ uns ein Freund.<BR>
</I>Paul left us in terms of a friend (or so)'. <BR>
<BR>
But (comitative reading):<BR>
<BR>
<I>Ein Freund verließ uns <B>mit Paul<BR>
</B></I>A friend left us (together) with Paul.' <BR>
<BR>
Interestingly enough, the <I>mit-</I>construction at issue shows an ergative distribution (S=O;A): As a far as I can see, we can use this 'identifying' strategy with NPs in S or O function only, but not in A function, compare:<BR>
<BR>
<I>Mit ihr starb</I> [<I>eine gute Freundin</I>]:<B>S<BR>
</B>She died being a good friend (or so).<BR>
<I><BR>
Mit ihr verlor ich</I> [<I>eine gute Freund</I>]:<B>O<BR>
</B>I have lost a good friend in terms of her (or so).'<BR>
<BR>
But not:<BR>
<BR>
*<I>Mit ihm verlor</I> [<I>der Mann</I>]:<B>A</B> <I>seine Ehre</I>.<BR>
with he:DAT lose:PAST:3SG DEF:MASC:NOM Mann his-FEM:ACC honor<BR>
<BR>
My question now is whether some of you know about analogous constructions in other languages, and, if yes, which strategies are applied (including a possible constraint regarding accusativity/ergativity) . In German, the pattern seems to based on the extreme polysemy of the preposition <I>mit</I>, covering (among many others) a true instrumental, a comitative, and some kind of 'equipment' function. This equipment function (that is a comitative-like function used with non-animates) seems to be a possible candidate for the development of the above-mentioned 'explicative' pattern, even though it strongly favors animate NPs. I also have the impression that the referent in the <I>mit</I>-NP stands in a meronymic relation with the 'correferential' expression in the second NP, but I'm not fully sure about that.<BR>
<BR>
Finally, I would be happy if you know of a better and more precise term for the function at issue. <BR>
<BR>
Many thanks in advance for sharing with me your expertise and best wishes,<BR>
Wolfgang<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
-- <BR>
<B>Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulze </B> <BR>
---------------------------------------------------------- <BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#FF0000"><I>Primary contact: <BR>
</I></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000099">Institut für Allgemeine & Typologische Sprachwissenschaft <BR>
Dept. II / F 13 <BR>
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München <BR>
Ludwigstraße 25 <BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#FF0000">Postanschrift / Postal address:</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000099"> Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1<BR>
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Tel.: 0049-(0)89-2180-2486 (Secretary) <BR>
0049-(0)89-2180-5343 (Office) <BR>
Fax: 0049-(0)89-2180-16567 // 0049-(0)89-2180-5345 <BR>
Email: W.Schulze@lrz.uni-muenchen.de <a href="mailto:W.Schulze@lrz.uni-muenchen.de"><mailto:W.Schulze@lrz.uni-muenchen.de></a> /// Wolfgang.Schulze@lmu.de <a href="mailto:Wolfgang.Schulze@lmu.de"><mailto:Wolfgang.Schulze@lmu.de></a> <BR>
Web: <a href="http://www.ats.uni-muenchen.de/personen/professoren/schulze/index.html">http://www.ats.uni-muenchen.de/personen/professoren/schulze/index.html</a><BR>
<a href="http://www.wolfgangschulze.in-devir.com">http://www.wolfgangschulze.in-devir.com</a> <BR>
----------------------------------------------------------<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#FF0000"><I>Second contact: <BR>
</I></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000099">Katedra Germanistiký <BR>
Fakulta humanitných vied <BR>
Univerzita Mateja Béla / Banská Bystrica <BR>
Tajovského 40 <BR>
SK-97401 Banská Bystrica <BR>
Tel: (00421)-(0)48-4465108 <BR>
Fax: (00421)-(0)48-4465512 <BR>
Email: Schulze@fhv.umb.sk <BR>
Web: <a href="http://www.fhv.umb.sk/app/user.php?user=schulze">http://www.fhv.umb.sk/app/user.php?user=schulze</a> <BR>
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