[Lingtyp] [Extern] Lingtyp Digest, Vol 117, Issue 16 Re: nouns denoting months and days of the week (Paolo Ramat)

[Sebastian Löbner]

Dear Christian,
I would like to add somer remarks on German. German is different from 
English in that there are the nouns for the days of the week Montag, 
Dienstag etc. and the corresponding adverbs montags, dienstags, etc. 
with the same (originally genitive) -s ending as in morgen-s, 
vormittags, mittags, nachmittags, abends, nachts, tags. The adverbs are 
used for generic reference: 'mittwochs singe ich im Chor' = "on 
Wednesday(s), I sing in the choir" or 'abends essen wir warm' = 'in the 
evening(s) we have a warm meal'. All these -s adverbs are only used for 
generic reference.
The nouns, when bare, have a temporal adverbial use, too, and this is 
not generic: 'Montag ist Markt' "(next)/coming) Monday is a/the market" 
which is equivalent with the adverbial 'am Montag' (etc) "on Monday"; 
thus 'Montag ist Markt' more literally translates to "on Monday there is 
a/the market". In addition, these nouns can be used as ordinary time 
denoting count nouns, like in 'dieser Monat hat 5 Sonntage' "this month 
has 5 sundays", 'jeden Mittwoch ist Markt' = "every Monday ...". Note 
that sentences like 'Montag ist Markt' are not copula sentences because 
(1) 'Montag' is accusative as becomes apparent if the noun is modified: 
'diesen/nächsten/jeden Montag ist Markt' (2) 'ist' here is not a copula, 
but a full verb meaning the same as 'findet statt' "takes place". That's 
why we also have sentences such as 'es ist Markt' (It's a/the market 
[day]), with no subject, but just an expletive 'es' such as in 'es 
regnet'.

Am 2024-06-30 14:00, schrieb lingtyp-request at listserv.linguistlist.org:
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>    1. Re: nouns denoting months and days of the week (Paolo Ramat)
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 29 Jun 2024 15:49:23 +0200
> From: Paolo Ramat <paoram at unipv.it>
> To: Christian Lehmann <christian.lehmann at uni-erfurt.de>
> Cc: "list, typology" <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] nouns denoting months and days of the week
> Message-ID:
> 	<CAEaecYE_UC83kXy-pikaLJYikEVcgsD=1XfTvfh3T1WLP6m7yw at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
> 
> Dear Christian,
> Here some marginal  observations  concerning the very interesting 
> debate.
> An Italian  native speaker  may say: " luned? c'? il / un mercato", 
> meaning
> that on next monday there will be the  usual /a special,  not habitual
> market ;or that every monday is the market day, in the sense of Lyons' 
> '
> cyclic names. "Il luned? c'?  il mercato" , with the preposed article,  
> has
> just the second meaning  , though the presence  of the article is not
> compulsory in order  to express habituality.
> As you may  see, there is a  certain  ambiguity which  depends on the
> contextual  situation ;and not everything  is black or white.
> Best,
> Paolo
> 
> Il Ven 28 Giu 2024, 19:39 Christian Lehmann via Lingtyp <
> lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> ha scritto:
> 
>> Many thanks to those who engaged in the discussion and provided 
>> helpful
>> hints, and especially to Mark for the extensive argument and the 
>> offprint.
>> Greetings, Christian
>> --
>> 
>> Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann
>> Rudolfstr. 4
>> 99092 Erfurt
>> Deutschland
>> Tel.: +49/361/2113417
>> E-Post: christianw_lehmann at arcor.de
>> Web: https://www.christianlehmann.eu
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> End of Lingtyp Digest, Vol 117, Issue 16
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