16.3013, Qs: Duzen/Siezen in German; Taboo-expressives

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LINGUIST List: Vol-16-3013. Tue Oct 18 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.3013, Qs: Duzen/Siezen in German; Taboo-expressives

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===========================Directory==============================  

1)
Date: 18-Oct-2005
From: Julie Belz < jab63 at psu.edu >
Subject: Duzen/Siezen in German 

2)
Date: 17-Oct-2005
From: Petar Kehayov < petar.kehayov at ua.ac.be >
Subject: Taboo-expressives as a Source of NP Adverbs 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 15:23:35
From: Julie Belz < jab63 at psu.edu >
Subject: Duzen/Siezen in German 
 

dear colleagues -

I would be so grateful if the native speakers of German among you might have a
few minutes to fill out the following  questionnaire:

http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/a/jab63/duzensiezen.html

or if you might pass it on to any interested parties. It is related to my
on-going exploration of the development of L2 pragmatic competence in German.

with all best, julie belz
asst. prof of applied linguistics and german
Penn State University
jab63 at psu.edu
http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/a/jab63/homepage.html 

Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition



	
-------------------------Message 2 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 15:23:39
From: Petar Kehayov < petar.kehayov at ua.ac.be >
Subject: Taboo-expressives as a Source of NP Adverbs 

	

Dear Linguists,

I am struck with a path of grammaticalization whereby expressions like
Who/God/Devil/Hell knows WH- (e.g. 'This is God knows how far from here')
have served as a source for negative degree adverbs. The languages under
scrutiny are Estonian and Latvian, which despite their geographical
adjacency are not genetic cognates.

The process of grammaticalization in Estonian is concurrent with the
omission of the (taboo-)agent. The target construction is exemplified in (1):

 (1) Leedu     ei ole teab-mis kaugel.
     Lithuania NEG be know-WH- far
    ''Lithuania is not very far''

The affirmative counterpart (2) of this sentence is ungrammatical, and the
adverb can be defined as negative polarity item.

 (2) *Leedu     on teab-mis kaugel
      Lithuania is know-WH- far
     ''Lithuania is very far''

In Latvian, the process is characterized by reduction of morphophonological
substance and univerbation. The source construction is Dievs zina cik (''God
knows how (much)'') and the target word DIEZCIK is a degree adverb which also
seems to be licensed only in negative contexts, e.g.:

 (3) Vinu  saites        nav bijusas diezcik       labas
     their relationships NEG be.PRTC god-knows-how good
     ''Their relationship has not been very good''

Are you aware of any similar cases of grammaticalization among the
languages you know? I do not exclude the possibility that this is common
phenomenon among the languages of the world? But then why the literature on
polarity doesn't seems to have paid attention to this type of expressions
as possible candidates for NPI-status.

 With my very best regards,

 Petar Kehayov 

Linguistic Field(s): Typology




 



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