Walking on the grammaticalization path of the definite article : functional main and side roads

Aufsatzsammlung

Zusammenfassung: "This volume focuses on the grammaticalization of the definite article in German. It contains eight empirically-based papers which examine individual stages of the grammaticalization path from its beginnings as a demonstrative to the definite article and beyond. Focusing on cognitive, pragmatic, semantic and syntactic factors, the contributions not only address the development from pragmatic to semantic definiteness, but also pertain to functional and formal changes starting as soon as the linguistic unit has acquired the function of marking semantic definiteness. Based on corpora spanning the entire history of the German language, from Old High German (750-1050) to present-day German, the analyses challenge the traditional linear model of grammaticalization and provide alternative pathways. What all the contributions have in common is the idea that the main grammaticalization path is accompanied or crossed by several side roads which lead to different destinations such as preposition-article-clitics, generic usages or onymic articles"--(Provided by publisher.)

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• ISBN: 9789027204943 ; 9027204942
• Dimensions: 25 cm
• Extent: VI, 253 Seiten
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Illustrationen

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Studies in language variation ; volume 23

Classification and Topics

• Keyword: Deutsch ; Bestimmter Artikel ; Grammatikalisation

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Amsterdam
• (who): John Benjamins Publishing Company
• (when): [2020]
• Contributor: Szczepaniak, Renata ; Flick, Johanna

Further information

• Table of contents: https://d-nb.info/1214258174/04
• Rights: Bei diesem Objekt liegt nur das Inhaltsverzeichnis digital vor. Der Zugriff darauf ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 11.06.2025, 2:24 PM CEST