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American Journal of Germanic Linguistics and Literatures
Vol 9.2
Society for Germanic Philology
ARTICLES
On the origin of preaspiration in Scandinavian
B. Richard Page
The Pennsylvania State University
The peripheral location of Scandinavian dialects with preaspiration supports
the view that preaspiration was present in Common Scandinavian. Sound
changes in Common Scandinavian and resulting morphophonemic alternations
in the older Scandinavian languages exhibit the articulatory timing characteristic
of preaspiration and sonorant devoicing and further bolster the argument
that Common Scandinavian is the terminus ad quem for the origin
of preaspiration. Dialectal and historical data also indicate that preaspiration
is primarily, but not exclusively, a West Scandinavian phenomenon. Finally,
it is argued that the reconstruction of preaspiration and sonorant devoicing
for Common Scandinavian motivates the development of West Jutlandic st¿d
and the distribution of Common Danish st¿d in West Jutlandic.
Constructional semantics in German: The dative
of inaction
Gregor Hens
The Ohio State University
This article contains arguments for a revised classification of a number
of so-called free datives in German. In particular, a distinction is drawn
between an ergative dative of inaction construction and an agentive dative
of affect. The construction grammar framework is employed to argue that
the unique semantics of the dative of inaction (a potential agent fails
to prevent an adversative, mutative event) are associated with the abstract
syntactic form of the construction as a whole, not with its constituents.
Because its semantics are constructional, i.e., not strictly predictable
from the semantics of its constituents, the dative of inaction is considered
a grammatical category distinct from the dative of affect, which has compositional
semantics.
Einar Haugen as a historian of linguistics
E. F. K. Koerner
University of Ottawa
De mortuis aut verum, aut nihil.
Jan Baudouin de Courtenay
In this short paper, the author takes a closer look at Einar Haugen's
(1906-1994) writings in as far as they touch upon the historiography of
linguistics. After a sketch of his scholarly background and the role he
played in the Linguistic Society of America generally and, more particularly,
as a historian of linguistic thought from his well-known LSA presidential
address of 1950 onwards, Haugen's treatment of the so-called First
grammatical treatise comes under closer scrutiny. In particular, the
author discusses two expressions in Haugen's 1950 edition of the text
that seem to have given rise to much speculation, namely, the word grein
and the (probably juridical) phrase skipta m‡li. It is argued
that Haugen and others-notably Hreinn Benediktsson-are at best overinterpreting
them by assigning modern structural phonologist meanings to the words,
turning them into metalinguistic terms. It is maintained instead that
the First Grammarian had made a practical argument in favor of the addition
of four vowels not found in the five-vowel Roman alphabet necessitated
by the facts of Old Icelandic, and that the text was basically a pedagogical
treatise on orthographic requirements and not a precocious phonological
discussion.
The Gothic genitive plural in -eí revisited
Kenneth
Shields, Jr.
Millersville University
In this brief paper it is proposed that the problematic Gothic genitive
plural suffix in -eí may derive from a grammaticalized deictic particle.
Typological and specifically Indo-European evidence for the derivation
of genitive markers from deictic particles is presented in support of
this hypothesis.
REVIEWS
M. Clyne, The German language in a changing Europe
Barbara A. Fennell
W. Brockhaus, Final devoicing in the phonology of German
Gregory K. Iverson
H. Hornbruch, Deonomastika: Adjektivbildungen auf der Basis von Eigennamen
in der Šlteren †berlieferung des Deutschen
Hartwig Mayer
E. H. Raidt, Historiese taalkunde: Studies oor die geskiedenis van
Afrikaans
Paul T. Roberge
C. M. Schmidt, Satzstruktur und Verbbewegung: Eine minimalistische
Analyse zur internen Syntax der IP (Inflection-Phrase) im Deutschen
John R. te Velde
J. Schiewe, Sprachenwechsel-Funktionswandel-Austausch der Denkstile:
Die UniversitŠt Freiburg zwischen Latein und Deutsch
C. J. Wells
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