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- Volume 74, Issue 2, 2021
NOWELE. North-Western European Language Evolution - Volume 74, Issue 2, 2021
Volume 74, Issue 2, 2021
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Overt subject pronoun in Gothic vs null subject in Greek
Author(s): Carla Falluominipp.: 155–171 (17)More LessAbstractThe Gothic translation of the Bible is a word-for-word rendition of a lost Greek Vorlage (reconstructed by W. Streitberg in 1908; 2nd revised edition in 1919). As previous studies have pointed out, one of the most interesting features of this version is the presence of the overt subject pronoun in instances where there is a null subject in Greek. Considering that Gothic is a null subject language, how is it possible to justify this feature? Based on a new collation that uses biblical textual witnesses not considered by Streitberg (i.e. Greek majuscule and minuscule manuscripts, Church Fathers, commentaries, lectionaries, and Vetus Latina manuscripts), this paper analyses the Gothic-Greek divergences involving the presence of the overt subject pronoun in the Gospel of John, in order to verify previous hypotheses and shed new light on this debated topic.
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Verb-final conjunct clauses in Old English prose
Author(s): Anna Cichoszpp.: 172–198 (27)More LessAbstractThe aim of this study is to analyse intertextual differences in the use of V-final order in Old English conjunct clauses and to determine to what extent the source of these differences may be Latin influence. The analysis reveals that the frequency of V-final order in OE conjuncts is rather limited in most texts, and Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica surfaces as the text in which the frequency of V-final conjunct clauses is exceptionally high. The study shows that the regular use of V-final order in Bede may be interpreted as a translation effect, with Latin inflating the frequency of the pattern in conjunct clauses, which means that the frequency of V-final conjunct clauses in early OE translations may not reflect native tendencies.
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Areal variation in Middle High German
Author(s): Carsten Becker and Oliver Schallertpp.: 199–241 (43)More LessAbstractUsing the Corpus der altdeutschen Originalurkunden ‘Corpus of Old German Original Charters’ (Wilhelm et al. 1932–2004), we will show that charters offer valuable information on dialectological differences during the Middle High German period. This text genre is unsurpassed in terms of its geographical resolution even though it faces certain challenges due to its partially formulaic style. With two well-known phenomena, i.e. inflected forms of the infinitive (‘gerunds’) and so-called ‘contracted’ verbs like haben/hân ‘have’, we will show how these materials can be analysed and put into perspective with other sources like the new Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik by Klein, Solms & Wegera (2018).
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The typology of Old Norse revisited
Author(s): Lars Heltoftpp.: 242–277 (36)More LessAbstractTypologically, the Old and Middle Scandinavian languages preserve features lost in Modern Scandinavian (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish), especially zero arguments and inactive constructions. Both phenomena present difficulties for the analysis of the Old and Middle Scandinavian languages as configurational, and generative linguists often choose a reductionist strategy, claiming that at the level of deep structure, configurational structure persists. Based on Middle Danish, my claim will be that zero arguments are semantically different from – and therefore cannot be reduced to – pronouns, and secondly, that inactive constructions do not have oblique subjects, but oblique first arguments (A1s). The meanings of the case forms nominative and oblique differ, depending on their constructional context. Any functional theory must respect the relevant grammatical sign contrasts of the language analysed, not try to explain them away.
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From case to topology
Author(s): Bjarne Simmelkjær Sandgaard Hansenpp.: 278–307 (30)More LessAbstractThe Scanian dialect of Middle Danish underwent a range of changes and reductions in its case system. I argue that these changes were caused neither by phonological developments nor by language contact as often assumed, but by multiple processes of grammaticalisation. The present paper focuses on one of these factors: that the relatively predictable constituent order within the Middle Danish noun phrase made case marking redundant in its function of marking noun-phrase internal agreement between head and modifier(s). This redundancy caused the case system to undergo a regrammation where the indexical sign relations changed so that the expression of morphological case no longer indicated this noun-phrase-internal agreement, leaving only topology (as well as morphologically marked number and gender agreement) as markers of this type of agreement. This factor contributed to the subsequent degrammation of the entire case system.
Volumes & issues
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Volume 77 (2024)
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Volume 76 (2023)
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Volume 75 (2022)
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Volume 74 (2021)
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Volume 73 (2020)
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Volume 72 (2019)
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Volume 71 (2018)
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Volume 70 (2017)
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Volume 69 (2016)
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Volume 68 (2015)
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Volume 67 (2014)
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Volume 66 (2013)
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Volume 64 (2012)
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Volume 62 (2011)
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Volume 60 (2011)
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Volume 58 (2010)
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Volume 56 (2009)
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Volume 54 (2008)
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Volume 53 (2008)
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Volume 52 (2007)
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Volume 50 (2007)
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Volume 49 (2006)
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Volume 48 (2006)
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Volume 46 (2005)
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Volume 46-47 (2005)
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Volume 45 (2004)
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Volume 44 (2004)
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Volume 43 (2003)
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Volume 42 (2003)
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Volume 41 (2002)
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Volume 40 (2002)
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Volume 39 (2001)
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Volume 38 (2001)
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Volume 37 (2000)
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Volume 36 (2000)
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Volume 35 (1999)
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Volume 34 (1998)
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Volume 33 (1998)
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Volume 31 (1997)
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Volume 30 (1997)
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Volume 31-32 (1997)
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Volume 28 (1996)
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Volume 27 (1996)
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Volume 28-29 (1996)
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Volume 26 (1995)
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Volume 25 (1995)
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Volume 24 (1994)
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Volume 23 (1994)
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Volume 21-22 (1993)
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Volume 20 (1992)
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Volume 19 (1992)
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Volume 18 (1991)
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Volume 17 (1991)
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Volume 16 (1990)
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Volume 15 (1990)
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Volume 14 (1989)
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Volume 13 (1989)
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Volume 12 (1988)
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Volume 11 (1988)
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Volume 10 (1987)
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Volume 9 (1987)
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Volume 8 (1986)
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Volume 7 (1986)
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Volume 6 (1985)
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Volume 5 (1985)
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Volume 4 (1984)
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Volume 3 (1984)
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Volume 2 (1983)
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Volume 1 (1983)
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