Context Factors in Clause-Type Disambiguation: Old High German ibu- Clauses in the Syntagma
In the history of studies in German syntax, clauses have typically been described based on their most salient internal features on various structural levels. Constructional approaches, however, prioritise a holistic and often usage-based view of grammatical structures, in which the distribution of a...
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| Veröffentlicht in: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/cognitextes, |
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| 1. Verfasser: | |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Sprache: | Anglais |
| Veröffentlicht: |
CogniTextes
2024
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| Online Zugang: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Zusammenfassung: | In the history of studies in German syntax, clauses have typically been described based on their most salient internal features on various structural levels. Constructional approaches, however, prioritise a holistic and often usage-based view of grammatical structures, in which the distribution of a construction is also information necessary for its correct usage and interpretation. The present study of Old High German syntax adopts this viewpoint and considers distributional regularities of conditional and complement clauses introduced with ibu, comparable to present-day English if and French si. Such clause types have many internal formal features in common, so that they appear to be formally ambiguous. Curiously, they rarely pose interpretation problems. Here, it is argued that part of the knowledge language users have of clausal constructions details their use in a syntagmatic context. This is demonstrated with corpus data showing that clause order, matrix verb semantics and the presence of resumptive adverbs are relevant for the interpretation of clauses. This is supported with evidence that pragmatic effects furthermore play a role in the disambiguation of these clause types and shines light upon methodological and theoretical problems. |
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