Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T04:48:29.376Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Introduction and Extension of the -st Ending in Old High German

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2011

Katerina Somers
Katerina Somers*
Affiliation:
Queen Mary, University of London
*
School of Languages, Linguistics, and Film, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK, [k.somers@qmul.ac.uk]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article seeks to explain the synchronic variation found in the second person singular inflectional ending (attested both as -s and -st) in the Old High German Evangelienbuch, while at the same time pro-viding a diachronic account of the introduction and extension of the -st ending in German. In order to achieve these goals, in my analysis I rely on the notions of cliticization and formal analogy, arguing that the innovative and original endings correlate with different syntactic environments (V1/V2 versus Vfinal), on the one hand, and different formal shapes (is versus ôs/ês), on the other. After presenting an account of the development of -st in OHG, I draw conclusions regarding the broader question of how clitics become (part of) inflection, a discussion which in turn has implications for the theories scholars use to describe and explain language change, specifically that of grammaticalization.*

Type
ARTICLES
Information
Journal of Germanic Linguistics , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , 06 May 2011 , pp. 141 - 181
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Germanic Linguistics 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abraham, Werner. 1993. Null subjects in the history of German: From IP to CP. Lingua 89. 117–142.Google Scholar
Antonsen, Elmer. 1975. A concise grammar of the older Runic inscriptions. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Axel, Katrin. 2007. Studies on Old High German syntax. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Bammesberger, Alfred. 1990. Phonology and morphology at the crossroads. Linguistic change and reconstruction methodology, ed. by Baldi, Philip, 275–287. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Behaghel, Otto. 1924. Deutsche Syntax, vol. 2. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.Google Scholar
Behaghel, Otto (ed.). 1965. Heliand und Genesis. 8th edn.Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bies, Ann. 1996. Syntax and discourse factors in Early New High German: Evidence for verb-final word order. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania MA thesis.Google Scholar
Bostock, J. Knight. 1976. A handbook on Old High German literature. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Braune, Wilhelm, & Ebbinghaus, Ernst (eds.). 1994. Psalm 138. Althochdeutsches Lesebuch, 138–139. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braune, Wilhelm, & Reiffenstein, Ingo. 2004. Althochdeutsche Grammatik I. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Brinton, Laurel, & Traugott, Elizabeth C.. 2005. Lexicalization and language change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Butzmann, Hans (ed.). 1972. Otfrid von Weissenburg Evangelienharmonie: Vollständige Faksimile-Ausgabe des Codex Vindobonensis 2687 der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek. Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt.Google Scholar
Campbell, Alistair. 1983. Old English grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dubenion-Smith, Shannon. 2008. Verbal complex phenomena in the West Central German dialects. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin-Madison dissertation.Google Scholar
Dubenion-Smith, Shannon. 2010. Verbal complex phenomena in West Central German: Empirical domain and multi-causal account. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 22. 99–199.Google Scholar
Dubenion-Smith, Shannon, & Wicka, Katerina Somers. 2009. Disambiguating clause structure in Old Saxon: The intersection of grammar, meter and performance. Paper presented at the 19th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, August 11, 2009. Radboud University, Nijmegen.Google Scholar
Fischer, Olga. 2007. Morphosyntactic change: Functional and formal perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Givón, Talmy. 1971. Historical syntax and synchronic morphology: An archaeologist'sfield trip. Proceedings from the 7th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, 394–415. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago, Department of Linguistics.Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul, & Traugott, Elizabeth C.. 2003. Grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jeffers, Robert, & Zwicky, Arnold. 1980. The evolution of clitics. Proceedings from the 4th International Congress on Historical Linguistics, ed. by Traugott, Elizabeth C., La Brum, Rebecca, & Shepherd, Susan, 221–231. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Klavans, Judith. 1982. Some problems in a theory of clitics. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Linguistics Club.Google Scholar
Kleiber, Wolfgang (ed.). 2004. Otfrid von Weißenburg. Evangelienbuch. Band I: Edition nach dem Wiener Codex 2687. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Lehmann, Winfrid. 1953. The alliteration of Old Saxon poetry. Oslo: H. Aschehoug.Google Scholar
Lenerz, Jürgen. 1985. Diachronic syntax: Verb position and COMP in German. Studies in German grammar, ed. by Toman, Jindrich, 103–132. Dordrecht: Foris.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masser, Achim (ed.). 1994. Die lateinisch-althochdeutsche Tatianbilingue Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen Cod. 56. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Google Scholar
Nübling, Damaris. 1992. Klitika im Deutschen: Schriftsprache, Umgangssprache, alemannische Dialekte. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.Google Scholar
Pfalz, Anton. 1918. Suffigierung der Personalpronomina im Donaubairischen. Republished in Peter Wiesinger 1983. Die Wiener Dialektologische Schule: Grundsätzliche Studien aus 70 Jahre Forschung. Wiener Arbeiten zur germanischen Altertumskunde und Philologie 23. 217–235Google Scholar
Piper, Paul (ed.). 1882. Otfrids Evangelienbuch. I. Teil: Einleitung und Text. Freiburg: Akademische Verlagsbuchhandlung.Google Scholar
Piper, Paul (ed.). 1887. Otfrids Evangelienbuch. II. Teil: Glossar und Abriss der Grammatik. Freiburg: Akademische Verlagsbuchhandlung.Google Scholar
Pittner, Karin. 1995. The case of German relatives. The Linguistic Review 12. 197–231.Google Scholar
Russom, Geoffrey. 1998. Beowulf and Old Germanic metre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sapp, Christopher. 2006. Verb order in subordinate clauses: From Early New High German to Modern German. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University dissertation.Google Scholar
Schirmunski, Viktor. 1962. Deutsche Mundartkunde [translated from Russian by Wolfgang Fleischer]. Berlin: Akademie Verlag.Google Scholar
Sievers, Eduard (ed.). 1960. Tatian. Lateinisch und altdeutsch mit ausführlichem Glossar. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh.Google Scholar
Sihler, Andrew. 1986. Germanic second person endings in -st. Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft 47. 193–215.Google Scholar
Somers Wicka, Katerina. 2009. From phonology to syntax: Pronominal cliticization in Otfrid's Evangelienbuch. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suzuki, Seiichi. 2004. The metre of Old Saxon poetry: The remaking of alliterative tradition. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer.Google Scholar
TITUS edition of Isidor von Sevilla, De Fide. http://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/etcs/germ/ahd/isidor/isido.htm. (June 16, 2009)Google Scholar
TITUS edition of Tatian, Gospel Harmony (Cod. Sang. 56). http://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/etcs/germ/ahd/tatianx/tatia.htm. (July 1, 2010.)Google Scholar
Weiß, Helmut. 2005. Inflected complementizers in continental West Germanic. Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik 72. 148–166.Google Scholar
Zwicky, Arnold. 1977. On clitics. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Linguistics.Google Scholar
Zwicky, Arnold. 1985. Clitics and particles. Language 61. 283–305.Google Scholar
Zwicky, Arnold, & Pullum, Geoffrey. 1983. Cliticization vs. inflection: English n't. Language 59. 502–513.Google Scholar