Evidentiality in German : linguistic realization and regularities in grammaticalization / by Gabriele Diewald, Elena Smirnova.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Diewald, Gabriele.

Contributor:

Smirnova, Elena.

Series:

Trends in linguistics. Studies and monographs ; 228.

Trends in linguistics. Studies and monographs ; 228

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

German language--Grammaticalization.

German language.

Grammar, Comparative and general--Grammaticalization.

Grammar, Comparative and general.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (374 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; New York : De Gruyter Mouton, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book is a comprehensive study of the evidential system in German. It presents a systematic description of the encoding of evidentiality in present-day German, as well as a diachronic reconstruction of the relevant sources and paths of grammaticalization from the Old High German period onwards. Based on empirical corpus research, the study investigates the degree of grammaticalization of each single evidential construction and the make-up of the present-day system as well as the diachronic stages that lead to the present state. The book focuses on three main issues. First, it is concerned with the general notion of evidentiality, its deictic character, and with the interrelations between the domains of evidentiality and epistemic modality. Second, the book presents the results of the synchronic corpus-based analysis of the German evidential periphrastic constructions werden 'become' + infinitive, scheinen 'seem', drohen 'threaten', versprechen 'promise' + zu 'to'- infinitive, which constitute a paradigm for coding evidentiality in Present Day German. Third, the diachronic development of the evidential constructions is represented as a complex grammaticalization process, interacting with the development of modal constructions and leading to a highly differentiated category of modal and evidential distinctions in the grammar of German.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Table of contents

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. Evidentiality - definitions and delimitations

Chapter 3. Evidentiality and modality - drawing the lines

Chapter 4. Grammar and grammaticalization

Chapter 5. Scales and scenarios of grammaticalization

Chapter 6. The four evidential constructions in present-day German

Chapter 7. Intermediate summary

Chapter 8. Diachronic corpus study of the four constructions

Chapter 9. Summary: the diachrony of the four constructions

Chapter 10. Summary and outlook

Backmatter

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612784187

9781282784185

1282784188

9783110241037

311024103X

OCLC:

665817620