Project B4

3rd Phase - The role of information structure in language change

Project B4 investigates the role of information structure in language change. In the preceding two funding phases, this question was examined on the basis of evidence for syntactic variation and change in Germanic. Our investigations revealed that variation in word order, as attested in the historical prestages of the Germanic languages, interacts with the realisation of information structural categories, e.g. with the (non-)creation of topic-comment-division or the disambiguation of contrastive vs. information focus. Based on these observations, we developed a model which shows how the expression of information structural categories influences syntactic variation and change. In the third funding phase, we aim at testing and verifying this model on explaining additional historical processes initiated or accompanied by information structural conditions. During our previous examinations, we observed that information structure not only induces changes on the level of clause structure but also affects properties of referring expressions like their lexical form, their semantic type, or their syntactic behaviour in topic or focus marking multi-clausal constructions. In examining these questions we want to apply our method of investigating information structure in historical corpora successfully exploited in the previous work of the project, supplementing it with analytical methods developed by the theoretical project in the SFB in order to describe the respective diachronic processes in a proper and straightforward fashion.

2nd Phase - The role of information structure in the development of word order regularities in Germanic

The project investigates the interaction of information-structural and grammatical conditions in the formation of word order regularities in Germanic languages. The central question of the project is how the information-structural contribution of the parts of the sentence affects their position in the sentence in the development of the reference languages. In the second funding phase, based on the reconstructed initial situation, the different developments in the individual languages ​​as well as the interaction between core grammar and information structure during these change processes will be examined more closely.

Following the results of the first funding phase, the focus is on examining those contingent factors that initiated the differentiation of the word order in Germanic in a largely identical initial situation. One focus is the theoretical modeling of these processes and the investigation of the question of what insights these word order changes can give us in the complex interaction between core grammar and information structure. Of particular theoretical interest is the question of how, in the course of the development of German and English, the dismantling or reinterpretation of designated focus positions came about and how - if at all - this change in the grammar system was compensated for, for example by the development of a variable accent in German and English. We want to examine the following developments in more detail.

• The grammaticalization of V2 was introduced in Old High German (AHD) by sentences with aboutness topics. All-focus sentences show variation in the AHD between V1 and V2 sentences with an initial thô. In order to determine the motives for the further generalization of V2 (in High German), it is necessary to examine the stages in which V1 sentences are broken down in Middle High German (MHD).
• While V2 is already generally carried out in ahd. topic sentences, no general V2 can be observed in Old Saxon (AS) in this context. We therefore want to investigate how generalized V2 develops in Low German (ND).
• Since the left periphery of the AS is more like the situation in Old English (AE), where topic sentences appear in both V2 and V3 sequences, we want to compare the development of V2 in ND with the further development of V2 in Middle English (ME). In particular, it should be investigated whether the generalization of V2 in the ND is autochthonous or is due to language contact with standard German.
• It could be shown that the AHD like the AE has a right peripheral focus position and the relative word order is subject to a prosodic condition. In order to find out how the sentence brackets develop in NHD, it is necessary to examine the stages in which postverbal focused phrases are broken down in the MHD. We want to examine the hypothesis that the preposition of focused arguments is related to the grammaticalization of the definitive article in the late AHD.
• Subsequently, it will be examined how light constituents are reproduced in North Germanic and English and why the grammaticalization of the definitive article in these languages ​​does not have the same effect as in German.

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1st Phase - The role of information structure in the development of word order regularities in Germanic

The project investigates the interaction between information-structural and grammatical conditions in the development of word order regularities in the Germanic languages. The central question of the project is how the information-structural role of a constituent influences its positioning in the clause and which factors are responsible for changes in the distribution of a constituent.

In particular, we want to investigate whether changes in the representation of information structural categories can induce changes in the core grammar, follow such changes or simply co-occur with them. From the answer to these questions, we expect insights into the complex interaction between information structure and core grammar as well as important contributions to the theory of language change. By considering discourse-grammatical parameters we may not only be able to pin down one important contingent factor in language change, but also be able to show how it interacts with the deterministic grammatical system.

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Principal Investigators

• Prof. Dr. Karin Donhauser (1st Phase, 2nd Phase, 3rd Phase)
• Prof. Dr. Svetlana Petrova (2nd Phase, 3rd Phase)
• Prof. Dr. Roland Hinterhölzl (1st Phase)

Former Staff Members

• Dr. des. Eva Schlachter
• Dr. Marco Coniglio
• Michael Solf

Student Assistants

• Anke Gehrlein
• Oxana Rasskazova

Activities