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Part of
Walking on the Grammaticalization Path of the Definite Article: Functional Main and Side Roads
Edited by Renata Szczepaniak and Johanna Flick
[Studies in Language Variation 23] 2020
► pp. 161–196

Absence as evidence

Determination and coordination ellipsis in conjoined noun phrases in (Early) New High German

In simple noun phrases, the generalization of definiteness marking to all kinds of head nouns was well-advanced by the Early New High German period (ENHG). In conjoined noun phrases, however, coordination ellipsis of determiners was common and subject to fewer restrictions than in Modern Standard German (MSG). A corpus analysis reveals a there-and-back change in the frequency of coordination ellipsis within ENHG and early NHG and a substantial structural change in its conditioning towards MSG. The semantic and pragmatic regularities favouring coordination ellipsis across diverging grammatical features in (E)NHG can be described in terms of natural coordination (the probability of concepts to co-occur). Towards MSG, formal constraints on morphosyntactic feature combinations (gender, number) prevail. A possible explanation combines internal and external factors: grammaticalization and codification. Methodologically, it turns out fruitful to regard not only the spread of a new gram, but also constructions favouring its absence.

Keywords: grammaticalization, determiners, definiteness, noun phrase, coordination, ellipsis, natural coordination, German, (Early) New High German, Modern Standard German
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Corpus analysis
    • 2.1Modern Standard German
    • 2.2(Early) New High German (1350–1800)
  • 3.Natural coordination as a conditioning factor of coordination ellipsis
  • 4.Coordination ellipsis and grammaticalization of determiners
    • 4.1Internal factors: From semantic-pragmatic to morphosyntactic conditioning
    • 4.2Social factors: Obligatorifiation by codification and stigmatization?
  • 5.Conclusion: Mind the gap
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 8 April 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.23.06dam
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