Frames change in language contact environments. A case study of schleichen ('to sneak') and kommen ('to come')

Buchbeitrag

Based on the empirical data of 97 fourth-graders from three districts of Braunschweig in Germany, this paper investigates the possibility of changing semantic frames in multilingual communities. The focus of study is the verb field of self-motion. In a free-sorting task involving 52 verbs, Turkish-speaking students, in particular, placed the verbs schleichen (‘to sneak’) and kommen (‘to come’) in the same group. When explaining the perceived similarity they also used the word schleichen (‘to sneak’), in a specific grammatical construction that is not found in Standard German. This paper suggests that semantic frames may change along with grammatical constructions when typologically distinct languages come into close contact.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

Classification and Topics

• Subject: Sprachkontakt ; Frame-Semantik ; Bedeutungswandel ; Verb ; Sprache

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Hünlich, David
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Amsterdam u.a. : Benjamins
• (when): 2019-01-29

Further information

• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:mh39-84535
• Last update: 06.03.2025, 9:00 AM CET