Vol. 24:1 (2024) ► pp.37–76
Article use in Upper German – a ‘radical’ stage of grammaticalization?
New findings from Austria
Despite an increasing interest in German dialect syntax, the study of article use in Upper German (Alemannic and Bavarian) remains a desideratum. This is true in particular for Austrian varieties. The present study focusses on article variation and change in Austrian Upper German and discusses the status of article grammaticalization. To that effect, ‘radical’ cases of article use in Upper German are analysed, i.e. cases considered incorrect in standard German: the use of indefinite articles before mass nouns, of definite articles before proper nouns, and of indefinite articles in the plural. These phenomena are investigated by means of a comprehensive dialect survey (3,599 dialect translations by 163 dialect speakers from 40 research locations). The analysis examines inner-linguistic factors (lexis, semantics, syntax) as well as extra-linguistic factors (dialect areas, age group). The findings reveal a surprisingly high variability and a relatively advanced stage of grammaticalization in some areas, especially Central Bavarian dialects.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Articles in German
- 2.1Standard usage
- 2.1.1Definite articles
- 2.1.2Indefinite articles
- 2.2Grammaticalization
- 2.2.1Definite articles
- 2.2.2Indefinite article
- 2.3Dialect variation
- 2.3.1Definite articles
- 2.3.2Indefinite articles
- 2.1Standard usage
- 3.Data and materials
- 3.1Research design, research locations and informants
- 3.2Stimuli
- 4.Empirical findings
- 4.1Articles before proper nouns
- 4.2Articles before unquantified mass nouns
- 4.3Articles between quantifiers and mass nouns
- 4.4Articles before plural nouns
- 4.5Indefinite-partitive pronouns with mass nouns and plural count nouns
- 5.Discussion
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References