Referential null subjects in German. Dialects and diachronic continuity
- Null subjects (NSs) have been a central research topic in generative syntax ever since the 1980s. This chapter considers the situation of German NSs both from a dialectological and from a diachronic perspective and attempts to reconstruct a direct line concerning the licensing conditions of pro-drop from Old High German (OHG) through Middle High German (MHG) and Early New High German (ENHG) to current dialects of New High German (NHG). Particularly, we will argue that German changed from a consistent, yet asymmetric pro-drop language to a partial, but symmetric one. In order to demonstrate that this development took place and the steps involved, we survey the existing empirical evidence and introduce new data.
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| Author: | Helmut WeißGND, Anna VolodinaGND |
|---|---|
| URN: | urn:nbn:de:bsz:mh39-110575 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198815853.003.0011 |
| ISBN: | 978-0-19-881585-3 |
| Parent Title (English): | Null Subjects in Generative Grammar: A Synchronic and Diachronic Perspective |
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
| Place of publication: | Oxford |
| Editor: | Federica Cognola, Jan Casalicchio |
| Document Type: | Part of a Book |
| Language: | English |
| Year of first Publication: | 2018 |
| Date of Publication (online): | 2022/05/20 |
| Publishing Institution: | Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache (IDS) |
| Publicationstate: | Zweitveröffentlichung |
| Publicationstate: | Postprint |
| Reviewstate: | (Verlags)-Lektorat |
| Tag: | Early New High German (ENHG); German dialects; Middle High German (MHG); Old High German (OHG); inflected complementizer; null subject; pro-drop; pronominal agreement; topic drop |
| GND Keyword: | Althochdeutsch; Deutsch; Dialektologie; Frühneuhochdeutsch; Generative Syntax; Mittelhochdeutsch; Mundart; Pro-Drop-Parameter |
| First Page: | 261 |
| Last Page: | 284 |
| DDC classes: | 400 Sprache / 400 Sprache, Linguistik |
| Open Access?: | ja |
| BDSL-Classification: | Grammatik |
| Leibniz-Classification: | Sprache, Linguistik |
| Linguistics-Classification: | Syntax |
| Licence (German): |  Urheberrechtlich geschützt |