COMPARATIVE SYNYAX and SEMANTICS OF THE GERMANIC

LANGUAGES
Base Hypothesis
Any language is understandable if the sound bites are grouped together
as:
morphemes,
words,
and constituents
For language to make sense, it needs a syntactic structure
universal grammar are made in terms of a structure
the study of syntax leads to the
Syntactic reconstruction
1. Process of moving of constituents back into the position
of its trace
2. the purpose of reconstruction is to invert scope relations
Semantic reconstruction
1. Process of interpretation of scope inversion by semantic
methods
of old parents languages
based on cognate form-meaning pairings
in old Germanic languages, sets of verbs of certain
lexico-semantic properties are bound in word-
groups with definite cases of verbal complements
The procedure of comparison and reconstruction is useful because
it provides us with the possibility of relying strongly on
morphological qualities of the languages under comparison.
Old English syntax = similar in many ways to that of modern English
However, there were some important differences.
Some were simply consequences of the greater level of:
nominal and
verbal inflection - e.g., word order was generally freer
In addition:
a. The default word order was Verb second (like modern German)
than modern English: the second constituent of declarative main
clauses is always a verb, while this is not necessarily the case in
other types of clauses
E! "#utch$
Ik las dit boek gisteren.
% read this boo& yesterday
'% read this boo& yesterday.'
Gisteren las ik dit boek.
yesterday read % this boo&
'(esterday % read this boo&.'
Dit boek las ik gisteren.
this boo& read % yesterday
'This boo& % read yesterday.'
%t may seem that the verb is in the third position in the last
sentence, but it is the second constituent) the first constituent is 'dit
boe&' "this boo&$. The word dit*this is a proclitic in this phrase and
lac&s prosodic independence.
COMPARE:
ENGL!": The do# bit the $an% & The $an bit the do#%
GERMAN: 'en "und biss der Mann translates as The $an bit the do#
(German is a highly inflected language, a more flexible word
order is possible)
PROSODY: (the rhythm, stress and intonation of speech). Prosody may
reflect various features of the speaker or the utterance: the emotional
state of the speaker; the form of the utterance (statement, question, or
command); the presence of irony or sarcasm; emphasis, contrast, and
focus; or other elements of language that may not be encoded by
grammar or choice of vocabulary
PROCLITIC:
adj. (of a word) closely connected in pronunciation with
the following word and not having an independent
accent or phonological status
noun: a proclitic word
Word order in English sentences becomes significantly more
difficult when:
indirect objects or adverbials are added to the standard
!ub(ect)Verb)Ob(ect s*nta+
+ocabulary!
English has the largest vocabulary of any language. #epending on counting
methods it has approaching one million words. The ,nglo-.axon lexical
base has been supplemented by the influx of words from /atin and 0ree&,
from 1rench and the languages of countries coloni2ed by England
b. There was no do- support in questions and negatives
do-support * do-insertion = the use of the auxiliary verb do in negative
*interrogative clauses that do not contain other auxiliaries
c. Multiple negatives could stack up in a sentence, and intensified
each other (ne#ati,e concord)
#ouble negation is uncommon in other 3est 0ermanic languages
exception is ,fri&aans, where it is mandatory! "1or example, 'He cannot
spea& ,fri&aans' becomes Hy kan nie Afrikaans praat nie, 'He cannot
,fri&aans spea& not.'$
Ek het nie geweet dat hy sou kom nie. "'% did not &now that he would
be coming.'$
Ek het geweet dat hy nie sou kom nie. "'% &new that he would not be
coming.'$
Hy sal nie kom nie, want hy is siek. "'He will not be coming because
he is sic&.'$
Dis nie so moeilik om Afrikaans te leer nie. "'%t is not so difficult to
learn ,fri&aans.'$
double negation "/ow 1ranconian dialects of west 1landers$
o "e.g., Ik ne willen da nie doen, '% do not want to do that'$ "a
different form than that found in ,fri&aans$
o %n 4elgian #utch dialects! some widely used expressions li&e
nooit niet "'never not'$ for 'never'.
4avarian! both single*double negation, with the latter denoting special
emphasis. 5ompare the
o 4avarian! Des hob i no nia ned g'hrt "'This have % yet never
not heard'$
o standard 0erman '#as habe ich noch nie geh6rt'
Languages without negative concord typically have
ne#ati,e polarit* items that are used in place of additional
negatives when another negating word already occurs:
Negative words used are: ever", "anything" and "anyone"
"I haven't ever owed anything to anyone" (cf. "I haven-t ne,er owed
nothin# to no one" in negative-concord dialects of English
"Never have I owed nothing to no one").
Note that negative polarity can be triggered not only by direct negatives
such as "not" or "never", but by words such as "doubt" or "hardly"
("I doubt he has ever owed anything to anyone" or "He has hardly ever
owed anything to anyone").
In English, double negatives can sometimes be used for understated
affirmation
(e.g. "I'm not feeling bad" vs. "I'm feeling good" litotes)
d. Sentences with subordinate clauses of the type "When X, Y" did
not use a wh)type word for the conjunction, but rather used
interrogative pronouns as a word related to "when", but a th)type
correlative conjunction (e.g. ./ 01 ./ 2 in place of "When X, Y").
5orrelative con7unctions! pairs of con7unctions that wor& together to
coordinate two items.
English!
both!and, "n#either!"n#or, and not "only#!but "also#, whether... or.
Examples!
Either do your wor& or prepare for a trip to the office.
Not only is he handsome but he is also brilliant.
Neither the bas&etball team nor the football team is doing well.
Both the cross country team and the swimming team are doing well.
Whether you stay or go is your decision.
.ubordinating con7unctions "subordinators$!introduce a dependent clauses
English! after, although, as if, as much as, as long as, as soon as, as though,
because, before, but, e$en if, e$en though, if, in that, in order that, lest,
since, so that, than, that, though, unless, until, when, whene$er, where,
where$er, whether, and while.
5omplementi2ers!
considered to be special subordinating con7unctions that introduce
complement clauses "e.g., '% wonder whether he8ll be late. % hope that he8ll be
on time'$
.ome subordinating con7unctions "until, while$, when used to introduce a
phrase instead of a full clause, become prepositions with identical meanings.
%n 0erman or #utch, the word order after a subordinating con7unction is
different from the one in an independent clause
#utch! want "for$ is coordinating, but omdat "because$ is subordinating.
The clause after the coordinating con7unction has normal word order, but the
clause after the subordinating con7unction has verb-final word order.
5ompare!
Hi7 gaat naar huis, want hi7 is 2ie&. "'He goes home, for he is ill.'$
Hi7 gaat naar huis, omdat hi7 2ie& is. "'He goes home because he is
ill.'$
0erman, 'denn' "for$ is coordinating, but 'weil' "because$ is subordinating!
Er geht nach Hause, denn er ist &ran&. "'He goes home, for he is ill.'$
Er geht nach Hause, weil er &ran& ist. "'He goes home because he is
ill.'$