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Constructions in Contact: Constructional perspectives on contact phenomena in Germanic languages
Edited by Hans C. Boas and Steffen Höder
[Constructional Approaches to Language 24] 2018
► pp. 115–142

Tense and aspect marking in (Low) German perfect constructions based on variety contact

Synchronic variability is an essential characteristic of all human languages. However, issues of linguistic variation have only recently become a popular topic within the framework of construction grammar (cf. Hoffmann 2011), cognitive sociolinguistics (Geeraerts et al. 2010) and variety contact (Höder 2014). This paper investigates synchronic variation of perfect auxiliary constructions with the verb anfangen (‘to start/to begin’) in variety contact of Low- and High German in the Westphalian and Emslandic areas. Based on qualitative and quantitative data analysis, we provide a model of the constructions within Cognitive Linguistics in the form of a two-dimensional geometric analysis of aspectual construals (Croft 2012) and Construction Grammar (Goldberg 1995).

Keywords: perfect tense, variety contact, Low German, synchronic variation, two-dimensional geometric analysis, aspectual contours
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Introduction to the German split auxiliary system
  • 3.Situation of Low German in Westphalia and Emsland
  • 4.Method – Field research and survey design
  • 5.Qualitative characterization of the phenomenon in contact
    • 5.1.The phenomenon in the dialect variety
    • 5.2.The phenomenon in the (regional) standard variety
  • 6.Quantitative empirical analysis
  • 7.Aspectual contours of lexical and grammatical aspect
  • 8.Modeling in the framework of Construction Grammar
  • 9.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgment
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 12 December 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.24.04web
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