28.3270, Diss: Pronominale Partitivität: Arealität und Mikrovariation einer morphosyntaktischen Variable in den Varietäten des Deutschen

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LINGUIST List: Vol-28-3270. Wed Aug 02 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.3270, Diss: Pronominale Partitivität: Arealität und Mikrovariation einer morphosyntaktischen Variable in den Varietäten des Deutschen

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Date: Wed, 02 Aug 2017 11:45:25
From: Thomas Strobel [th.strobel at lingua.uni-frankfurt.de]
Subject: Pronominale Partitivität: Arealität und Mikrovariation einer morphosyntaktischen Variable in den Varietäten des Deutschen

 
Institution: Goethe University Frankfurt 
Program: Linguistics phd 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2017 

Author: Thomas Strobel

Dissertation Title: Pronominale Partitivität: Arealität und Mikrovariation
einer morphosyntaktischen Variable in den Varietäten des
Deutschen 

Dissertation URL:  http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/44424

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics
                     Morphology
                     Syntax

Subject Language(s): German (deu)

Language Family(ies): Germanic


Dissertation Director(s):
Helmut Weiß
Elvira Glaser

Dissertation Abstract:

This thesis investigates the morphosyntax of pronominal partitive anaphors in
Continental West Germanic, particularly in varieties of German (especially
Hessian). It concentrates on the geolinguistic distribution, morphosyntactic
variation and structural analysis of pronominal devices expressing an
indefinite subset. Traditional dialectological issues are combined with
questions of theoretically informed syntactic research. Furthermore, the study
aims at comparing various systems of pronominal partitivity for the first time
in a truly crosslinguistic manner: This is carried out predominantly within
(West) Germanic varieties, but also by including (Central) Romance languages,
in order to comprehend both differences and common features on a micro- and
mesovariational level. 

After a thorough definition of the morphosyntactic variable and its variants
plus the different dimensions of variation concerned, the DFG-funded project
''Syntax of Hessian Dialects'' (SyHD) is presented, since it provides the bulk
of the empirical data for the present investigation. In this context, I
discuss general and specific questions of data collection, analysis and
interpretation. The core part of the dissertation addresses the diatopic,
diachronic and distributional-syntactic variation of the systems of pronominal
partitivity. The main strategies of partitive-anaphoric reference within the
German-speaking language area comprise an older system as well as three
innovative systems: archaic, fossilized pronominal genitive forms such as
''(d)(e)r(e)'', ''s(e)n'', ''es'' 'of them/it' (living on primarily in a strip
from West Central German to East Franconian, but also in southern peripheral
areas), the typologically salient indefinite-partitive pronoun
''welch-''/''we(l)k-'' 'some' of Standard and Low/Northern German, the
southwestern (Alemannic) strategy of null anaphora, and the southeastern
(Bavarian) generalized indefinite pronoun ''ein-'' 'one'. This areal
distribution is basically confirmed on a smaller scale for Hesse, a dialect
area located centrally and thus being under the influence of virtually all
strategies. Nonetheless, there are some surprising results such as a
categorial difference for number and to some extent also gender when it comes
to the vitality of the partitive genitive pronouns. Diachronically, one can
identify two types of changes in the system of genitive anaphors: internal
alterations (by the loss of features or forms) and external processes of
replacement (due to the expansion of the innovative means of expression).
Moreover, as to the course of change, cyclic sequences of weakening and
reinforcement can be discerned. Concerning the syntactic distribution,
especially the genitive pronouns are tested for their compatibility with
nominal modifiers such as numerals/(weak) quantifiers, ''inflected'' cardinal
numbers (schwa), adjectives, different types of PPs and relative versus
complement clauses. For this purpose, the dialectal German genitive particles
are also compared to the equivalent Dutch pronoun ''er'' and to the Romance
clitics Fr. ''en''/It. ''ne''. With respect to the German partitive anaphors,
there turns out to be evidence for two distinct syntactic levels of
pronominalization. Eventually, the phenomenon is embedded into the more
general discussion of nominal ellipsis (elision and pronominalization
strategies). As a result of evaluating the licensing approaches discussed in
the literature on the basis of new dialectal and typological data, I argue for
an analysis in terms of inflection/agreement or morphosyntactic features.




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