Browse Books

This volume reflects the influence of Chuck Fillmore’s ground-breaking work in the fields of semantics and pragmatics. The papers in the volume pay tribute to his pioneering research into the deepest realms of the nature of ‘meaning’.

Die vorliegende Monographie behandelt die nordfriesischen Grabhügelnamen und die darin enthaltenen Anthroponyme. Die sprachgeschichtliche Analyse des Namenmaterials stützt sich dabei auf ein vielschichtiges Quellenmaterial wobei ein spezielles Augenmerk den morphologischen Merkmalen gilt. Insbesondere die Art der genitivischen Kompositionsfuge scheint Rückschlüsse auf die Genese bestimmter Namentypen und ihrer Deklinationszugehörigkeit im (Nord)friesischen zuzulassen. Schließlich versteht sich die Arbeit auch als ein Beitrag zu einem (Nord)friesischen Namenbuch das nach wie vor eines der größten Desiderate friesischer Namenkunde ist.

Extraction has traditionally been one of the main topics in generative grammar and it retains this status in current variants of the theory. German provides a good testing ground for traditional as well as current theories of extraction. The nine contributions to this volume document the recent lively discussions on the adequate analyses of extraction constructions on the impact of extraction on semantic interpretation and above all on the question of which constructions are to be analysed as extractions and which not.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>Uli Lutz gives an overview of extraction theory. Marga Reis challenges the standard analysis of extraction from verb-second clauses and opts for a parenthetic analysis. Franz d’Avis confronts current approaches to wh-islands with the facts in German and investigates the semantic properties of topicalization from wh-clauses. Sigrid Beck derives various negative island effects from a constraint on Logical Form. Jürgen Pafel relates the differences between two kinds of extraction from noun phrases to the structure of the noun phrases. Daniel Büring and Katharina Hartmann argue for the traditional analysis of extraposition as rightward movement based on a detailed comparison with alternative accounts. Gereon Müller derives the peculiar restrictions on extraposition from a theory of improper movement. Hubert Haider defends his analysis of extraposition as a base-generated construction against his critics. Chris Wilder develops a minimalist account of extraposition and takes extraposition and coordination ellipsis to be instances of the same process.

This volume brings together a number of studies on the early stages of creolization which are entirely based on historical data. The recent (re)discovery of early documents written in creole languages such as Negerhollands Bajan and Sranan allows for a detailed and empirically founded reconstruction of creolization as an historical-linguistic process. In addition demographic and socio-historical evidence on some of the relevant former colonies such as Surinam Haiti and Martinique sheds new light on some crucial sociolinguistic aspects of creolization such as the rate of nativization of the creole-speaking population. Both types of evidence relate to essential questions in the theory of creolization such as: Is creolization a matter of first or second language acquisition? What are the respective roles of substrate superstrate and universal grammar in creole genesis? And what if any are the differences between creole development and normal language change? The subjects discussed in this volume include: a comparative study of the historical development of seven pidgins and creoles (Baker); reflexives in 18th-century Negerhollands (Van der Voort & Muysken); the emergence of taki as a complementizer in Sranan (Plag); the historical development of relativization in Sranan (Bruyn); the cultural and demographic background of creolization in Haiti and Martinique (Singler); the creole nature of early Bajan (Field); a linguistic analysis of the so-called 'slave letters' in Negerhollands (Stein); and demographic factors in the formation of Sranan (Arends).