Possessive -s in German
Development, variation and theoretical status
In several Germanic languages, such as English and Swedish, the former genitive morpheme -s has developed into a possessive marker, which has been described as a special clitic by some scholars. Synchronic and diachronic corpus data as well as a comparison with English and Dutch show that German possessive -s is going through a similar, though less radical change as its Germanic counterparts, resulting in morphosyntactic variation. This high amount of synchronic and diachronic variation makes it hard to categorize -s in German. However, the marker can best be described as a bound element that gradually loses its paradigmaticity. This gradual rather than categorial change in progress on an affix-clitic-continuum challenges both synchronic as well as diachronic morpheme-based theoretical approaches.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Empirical analysis
- 2.1The development of the superstable marker -s
- 2.1.1Paradigmatic deflexion
- 2.1.2Syntagmatic deflexion
- 2.2The current occurrences of possessive -s
- 2.3A contrastive comparison with English and Dutch
- 3.Theoretical considerations
- 3.1Morphological status of possessive -s
- 3.2Consequences for synchronic syntactic modelling
- 3.3Implications for diachronic modelling
- 3.3.1Degrammaticalization
- 3.3.2Constructionalization
- 3.3.3Exaptation
- 4.Conclusion
-
Notes
-
Corpora
-
References
References (76)
Corpora
DECOW2012, DECOW2014 <[URL]>
Deutsches Textarchiv (DTA) <[URL]>
References
Ackermann, Tanja. 2018b. Grammatik der Namen im Wandel. Diachrone Morphosyntax der Personennamen im Deutschen [Studia Linguistica Germanica 134]. Berlin: De Gruyter.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ackermann, Tanja & Zimmer, Christian. 2017. Morphologische Schemakonstanz. Eine empirische Untersuchung zum funktionalen Vorteil nominalmorphologischer Wortschonung im Deutschen. In Sichtbare und hörbare Morphologie [Linguistische Arbeiten 565], Nanna Fuhrhop, Karsten Schmidt & Renata Szczepaniak (eds), 145–176. Berlin: De Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Allen, Cynthia L. 1997. The origins of the group genitive in English. Transactions of the Philological Society 95: 111–131. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Allen, Cynthia L. 2003. Deflexion and the development of the genitive in English. English Language and Linguistics 7: 1–28. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Anderson, Stephen R. 2005. Aspects of the Theory of Clitics. Oxford: OUP. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Anderson, Stephen R. 2008. The English “group genitive” is a special clitic. English Linguistics 25(1): 1–20. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Askedal, John Ole. 2003. Grammaticalization and the historical development of the genitive in Mainland Scandinavian. In Papers from the 15th International Conference on Historical Linguistics [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 237], Barry J. Blake & Kate Burridge (eds), 21–32. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Booij, Geert. 2010. Construction Morphology. Oxford: OUP.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Börjars, Kersti. 2003. Morphological status and (de)grammaticalisation: The Swedish possessive. Nordic Journal of Linguistics 26(2): 133–163. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Börjars, Kersti, Vincent, Nigel & Walkden, George. 2015. On constructing a theory of grammatical change. Transactions of the Philological Society 113(3): 363–382. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bücking, Sebastian. 2012. Kompositional flexibel. Partizipianten und Modifikatoren in der Nominaldomäne [Studien zur Deutschen Grammatik 83]. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Carstairs, Andrew. 1987. Diachronic evidence and the affix-clitic distinction. In Papers from the 7th International Conference on Historical Linguistics [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 48], Anna Giacalone Ramat, Onofrio Carruba & Giuliano Bernini (eds), 151–162. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dammel, Antje & Nübling, Damaris. 2006. The superstable marker as an indicator of categorial weakness? Folia Linguistica 40: 97–113. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Demske, Ulrike. 2001. Merkmale und Relationen. Diachrone Studien zur Nominalphrase im Deutschen [Studia Linguistica Germanica 56]. Berlin: De Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Duden. 2016. Die Grammatik [Duden, Vol. 4]. Berlin: Dudenverlag.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fuß, Eric. 2011. Eigennamen und adnominaler Genitiv im Deutschen. Linguistische Berichte 225: 19–42.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gallmann, Peter. 1996. Die Steuerung der Flexion in der DP. Linguistische Berichte 164: 283–314.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Harnisch, Rüdiger. 2001. Grundform- und Stamm-Prinzip in der Substantivmorphologie des Deutschen. Synchronische und diachronische Untersuchung eines typologischen Parameters [Germanistische Bibliothek 10]. Heidelberg: Winter.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hartmann, Katharina & Zimmermann, Malte. 2003. Syntactic and semantic adnominal genitive. In (A-)symmetrien – (A)-symmetries. Beiträge zu Ehren von Ewald Lang, Claudia Maienborn (ed.), 171–202. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hentschel, Elke. 1994. Entwickeln sich im Deutschen Possessiv-Adjektive? Der -s-Genetiv bei Eigennamen. In
Satz – Text – Diskurs. Akten des 27. Linguistischen Kolloquiums, Münster 1992
, Vol. 1 [Linguistische Arbeiten 312], Susanne Beckmann & Sabine Frilling (eds), 17–25. Tübingen: Niemeyer. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Herslund, Michael. 2001. The Danish -s genitive: From affix to clitic. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 33(1): 7–18. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hopper, Paul & Traugott, Elizabeth C. 1993. Grammaticalization. Cambridge: CUP.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Janda, Richard. 1980. On the decline of declensional systems: the loss of OE nominal case and the ME reanalysis of -es and his
. In Papers from the 4th International Conference on Historical Linguistics [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 14], Elizabeth Traugott, Rebecca Labrum & Susan C. Shepard (eds), 243–252. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kasper, Simon. 2015. Linking syntax and semantics of adnominal possession in the history of German. In Language Change at the Syntax-Semantics Interface [Trends in Linguistics – Studies and Monographs 278], Chiara Gianollo, Agnes Jäger & Doris Penka (eds), 57–99. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Maria. 2001. Adnominal possession. In Language Typology and Language Universals, Vol. 2 [Handbook of Linguistics and Communication Science 20.2], Martin Haspelmath, Ekkehard König, Wulff Oesterreicher & Wolfgang Raible (eds), 960–970. Berlin: De Gruyter.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lass, Roger. 1990. How to do things with junk: Exaptation in language evolution. Journal of Linguistics 26: 79–102. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lehmann, Christian. 2015 [1982]. Thoughts on Grammaticalization [Classics in Linguistics 1], 3rd edn. Berlin: Language Science Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lindauer, Thomas. 1998. Attributive genitive constructions in German. In Possessors, Predicates and Movement in the Determiner Phrase [Linguistics Today 22], Artemis Alexiadou & Chris Wilder (eds), 109–140. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Meibauer, Jörg. 2007. How marginal are phrasal compounds? Generalized insertion, expressivity, and I/Q-interaction. Morphology 17(2): 233–259. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Neef, Martin. 2006. Die Genitivflexion von artikellos verwendbaren Eigennamen als syntaktisch konditionierte Allomorphie. Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft 25(2): 273–299. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Norde, Muriel. 1997. The History of the Genitive in Swedish. A Case Study in Degrammaticalization. PhD dissertation, University of Amsterdam.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Norde, Muriel. 2006. Demarcating degrammaticalization: The Swedish s-genitive revisited. Nordic Journal of Linguistics 29(2): 201–238. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Norde, Muriel. 2009. Degrammaticalization. Oxford: OUP. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Norde, Muriel. 2011. Degrammaticalization. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammaticalization, Bernd Heine & Heiko Narrog (eds), 475–487. Oxford: OUP.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Nowak, Jessica & Nübling, Damaris. 2017. Schwierige Lexeme und ihre Flexive im Konflikt: Hör- und sichtbare Wortschonungsstrategien. In Sichtbare und hörbare Morphologie [Linguistische Arbeiten 565], Nanna Fuhrhop, Renata Szczepaniak & Karsten Schmidt (eds), 113–144. Berlin: De Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Nübling, Damaris. 1992. Klitika im Deutschen. Schriftsprache, Umgangssprache, alemannische Dialekte [Script Oralia 42]. Tübingen: Narr.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Nübling, Damaris. 2012. Auf dem Weg zu Nicht-Flektierbaren: Die Deflexion der deutschen Eigennamen diachron und synchron. In Nicht-flektierte und nicht-flektierbare Wortarten [Linguistik – Impulse und Tendenzen 47], Björn Rothstein (ed.), 224–246. Berlin: De Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Nübling, Damaris. 2014. Sprachverfall? Sprachliche Evolution am Beispiel des diachronen Funktionszuwachses des Apostrophs im Deutschen. In Sprachverfall? Dynamik – Wandel – Variation [Jahrbuch 2013 des Instituts Für Deutsche Sprache], Albrecht Plewnia & Andreas Witt (eds), 99–123. Berlin: De Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Pafel, Jürgen. 2015. Phrasal compounds are compatible with Lexical Integrity. STUF – Language Typology and Universals 68(3): 263–280.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Paul, Hermann. 1917. Deutsche Grammatik, Band II. Teil III: Flexionslehre
. Halle (Saale): Niemeyer.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Rauth, Philipp. 2014. Die Entstehung von s-Plural und “Sächsischem Genitiv”. Familien- und Personennamen als Brückenkonstruktionen. Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur (PBB) 136(3): 341–373. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Rosenbach, Anette. 2008. Animacy and grammatical variation – Findings from English genitive variation. Lingua 118(2): 151–171. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schäfer, Roland & Bildhauer, Felix. 2012. Building large corpora from the web using a new efficient tool chain. Proceedings of the LREC 2012, 20–27 May 2012, 486–493. Istanbul.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schallert, Oliver. In press. Portrait of the clitic as a young affix: Infinitivisches zu im Niemandsland zwischen Morphologie und Syntax. In Syntax aus Saarbrücker Sicht 3. Beiträge der SaRDiS-Tagung zur Dialektsyntax [Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik - Beihefte], Augustin Speyer & Julia Hertel (eds). Stuttgart: Steiner.
Scherer, Carmen. 2010. Das Deutsche und seine dräuenden Apostrophe. Zur Verbreitung von ’s im Gegenwartsdeutschen. Zeitschrift für germanistische Linguistik 38: 1–24. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Scott, Alan K. 2014. The Genitive Case in Dutch and German. A Study of Morphosyntactic Change in Codified Languages [Brill’s Studies in Historical Linguistics 2]. Leiden: Brill.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Simon, Horst J. 2010. “Exaptation” in der Sprachwandeltheorie. Eine Begriffspräzisierung. In Prozesse sprachlicher Verstärkung. Typen formaler Resegmentierung und semantischer Remotivierung [Linguistik – Impulse & Tendenzen 37], Rüdiger Harnisch (ed.), 41–57. Berlin: De Gruyter.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Spencer, Andrew & Luís, Ana R. 2012. Clitics. An Introduction. Cambridge: CUP. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Steche, Theodor. 1927. Die neuhochdeutsche Wortbiegung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Sprachentwicklung im 19. Jahrhundert. Breslau: Hirt.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Traugott, Elizabeth C. & Trousdale, Graeme. 2013. Constructionalization and Constructional Changes. Oxford: OUP. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Trousdale, Graeme & Norde, Muriel. 2013. Degrammaticalization and constructionalization: two case studies. In Current Trends in Grammaticalization Research. Special issue [Language Sciences 36], Muriel Norde, Alexandra Lenz & Karin Beijering (eds), 32–46.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Vezzosi, Letizia. 2000. The history of the genitive in Dutch: An evidence of the interference between language standardisation and spontaneous drift. Studia Germanica Posnaniensia 26: 115–147.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Vincent, Nigel & Börjars, Kersti. 2010. Grammaticalization and models of language change. In Gradience, Gradualness and Grammaticalization [Typological Studies in Language 90], Elizabeth Closs Traugott & Graeme Trousdale (eds), 279–299. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wälchli, Bernhard. 2005. Co-Compounds and Natural Coordination. Oxford: OUP. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wegera, Klaus-Peter, Waldenberger, Sandra & Lemke, Ilka. 2018. Deutsch diachron. Eine Einführung in den Sprachwandel des Deutschen, 2nd edn. [Grundlagen der Germanistik 52]. Berlin: Erich Schmidt.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Weiß, Helmut. 2008. The possessor that appears twice. Variation, structure and function of possessive doubling in German. In Microvariation in Syntactic Doubling [Syntax and Semantics 36], Sief Barbiers, Olaf Koeneman, Maria Lekakou & Margreet van der Ham (eds), 381–401. Bingley: Emerald.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wurzel, Wolfgang Ullrich. 1987. System-dependent morphological naturalness in inflection. In Leitmotifs in Natural Morphology [Studies in Language Companion Series 10], Wolfgang Dressler, Willi Mayerthaler, Oswald Panagl & Wolfgang Ullrich Wurzel (eds), 59–96. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Zifonun, Gisela. 2001. Eigennamen in der Narrenschlacht. Oder: Wie man
Walther von der Vogelweide in den Genitiv setzt. Sprachreport
3: 2–5.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Zifonun, Gisela. 2005. Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod: zur Analyse des adnominalen possessiven Dativs. In Deutsche Syntax: Empirie und Theorie. Symposium in Göteborg 13.–15. Mai 2004 [Göteborger Germanistische Forschungen 46], Franz Josef d’Avis (ed.), 25–51. Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Zwicky, Arnold. 1977. On Clitics. Bloomington IA: Indiana University Linguistics Club.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Zwicky, Arnold. 1987. Suppressing the Zs. Journal of Linguistics 23: 133–148. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Zwicky, Arnold. 1988. Direct reference to heads. Folia Linguistica 22(3–4): 397–404.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Zwicky, Arnold & Pullum, Geoffrey K. 1983. Cliticization vs. inflection: English n’t
. Language 59(3): 502–513. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (2)
Cited by two other publications
Freywald, Ulrike & Antje Dammel
2023.
Morphologie: Das Wort. In
Deutsche Sprache der Gegenwart,
► pp. 193 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 june 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.