Abstract
Since MHG times, W-exclamatives show variation between verb-second and verb-last word order. Contrary to Naf's pilot study on Gottfried von Strassburg's 'Tristan' (1992), I demonstrate that verb-last is in fact the more common pattern for W-exclamatives in MHG. This means that a syntactic change must have happened as the language develeped into Modern German, in which verb-second is the predominant order. As for the latter period, the long-standing assumption has been that there are no functional differences between these types. I show that at least for MHG, this null hypothesis is still valid, so that recent suggestions by Repp (2016) about present-day German that gradation is the distinguishing feature, cannot be supported for older stages of German.
| Item Type: | Journal article |
|---|---|
| Faculties: | Languages and Literatures > Department 1 |
| Subjects: | 400 Language > 400 Language |
| ISSN: | 0005-8076 |
| Language: | German |
| Item ID: | 82041 |
| Date Deposited: | 15. Dec 2021, 15:00 |
| Last Modified: | 15. Dec 2021, 15:00 |
Actions (login required)
- View Item
