What does a verb? Indicate sentence type

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-332
Author(s):  
Augustin Speyer
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Type ◽  
Important Task ◽  
Flexible Structure ◽  
Old High German ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Semitic Languages ◽  
Subjunctive Mood ◽  
Gradual Development ◽  
Final Sentence ◽  
Imperative Mood

Abstract An important task of the verb in German is to indicate sentence type. Depending on where the verb is positioned, the clause is a declarative (verb after the first constituent, which can be any constituent), wh-interrogative (verb after the first constituent, being the wh-phrase), yes/no-interrogative (verb in first position, bearing indicative or subjunctive mood) or imperative clause (verb in first position, bearing imperative mood). This system developed out of a system in which sentence type was indicated by clause-final sentence mood particles, as is usual in older Indo-European (and Semitic) languages. In declarative sentences, the verb-second syntax only came about shortly before the Old High German attestation sets in. We can trace the gradual development of the modern German verb-second syntax with variable prefield from a clear topic-comment structure to a more flexible structure.

Verb-initial declaratives in Old High German and in later German

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svetlana Petrova
Keyword(s):  
Main Part ◽  
Old High German ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Diachronic Syntax ◽  
Adequate Understanding ◽  
History Of ◽  
Syntactic Properties

This chapter investigates the syntactic properties and the pragmatic behaviour of verb-initial declarative clauses in the history of German. The focus is on OHG because in this period, verb-initial declaratives represent a frequent, well-known alternative to canonical verb-second main clauses. It is argued that verb-initial declaratives are native in origin, and that they are derivable under a special interpretation of the verb-second rule. The main part of the chapter deals with the pragmatic properties of verb-initial declaratives in OHG, summarizing the various attempts at explaining the distribution of these orders and showing that further research is needed to arrive at a more adequate understanding of their function in the discourse. The chapter closes up with the discussion of the later development of verb-initial declaratives in German, sketching the controversial treatments of this question in the literature on German diachronic syntax.

Verb-third in Otfrid’s Evangelienbuch

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-98
Author(s):  
Katerina Somers
Keyword(s):  
Old High German ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
The Status ◽  
Finite Verb

Abstract This article investigates the status of so-called verb-final declaratives in Otfrid’s Evangelienbuch, with a focus on whether clauses in which there is no apparent subordinator and the finite verb occurs later than the expected verb-first or verb-second position can be treated as verb-third (V3) clauses, as they are defined for Old High German in works such as Axel (2007) and Tomaselli (1995). Drawing on a set of 746 clauses, I argue that there is no evidence that the finite verbs in these clauses have undergone verb movement, as is claimed in the aforementioned works, nor are the asyndetic verb-late clauses with a verb in surface third position consistent with the patterns identified in the generative literature for the V3 type.

Origins of verb-second in Old High German

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrin Axel-Tober
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Old High German ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Ample Evidence ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Operator Movement

This chapter investigates the characteristics of the left sentence periphery in Old High German. In the earlier OHG prose texts we still find some archaic characteristics of a non- or pre-verb-second grammar. These include residual and partly productive features of a non-conflated C-domain arguably inherited from Proto-Germanic or even Proto-Indo-European. On the other hand, there is ample evidence that the precursor of the so-called prefield position already existed in OHG and that it was already a target for both operator movement and Stylistic Fronting. All these phenomena shed interesting light on the question of which syntactic steps the language had to take in order consolidate its verb-second grammar.

Speaking, telling and assertion

2006 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eirian C. Davies
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Type ◽  
Propositional Attitudes ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Modal Verbs ◽  
Subjunctive Mood ◽  
Knowledge Component ◽  
Full Knowledge ◽  
Epistemic Modalities ◽  
Interrogative Sentence ◽  
Analysis Of Knowledge

This paper distinguishes between speaking, telling and assertion. Speaking is approached in ‘mechanical’ terms, as the production of linguistic forms. Telling is defined in terms of the degree of the speaker’s commitment to what s/he says, and, therefore, as operative both with respect to constructions of knowledge and of decision. That is, telling is said to apply to constructions both in the indicative and imperative moods, to those with ‘wish’ as well as those with ‘thought’ subjunctives, and to both those with epistemic, and those with deontic, modal verbs. Assertion is defined as full telling of full knowledge. This definition leads to the establishment of three broad categories of non-assertive constructions, which are nevertheless ‘told’. Four telling operators are proposed, defined in terms of degrees of commitment. The discussion builds on an earlier analysis of knowledge constructions in terms of propositional attitudes, by applying telling operators to four of the categories established there. From this it emerges that an account of knowledge constructions in terms of epistemic operators alone cannot be adequate, since telling operators sometimes act to modify epistemic modalities. Other than full telling is seen as introducing a further kind of modality. This telling modality is realized in the knowledge component by the interrogative sentence type in sentences containing either a finite lexical verb or an epistemic auxiliary, and by subjunctive mood in the former and ‘past tense’ forms of the latter.

Historische Syntax des Deutschen aus generativer Perspektive

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrin Axel-Tober
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Old High German ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Diachronic Syntax ◽  
The Core ◽  
First Case ◽  
Core Property ◽  
Syntactic Representation

AbstractThis paper summarizes recent advances in research on the diachronic syntax of German from a generative perspective on the basis of three case studies. The first case study focuses on the sentence grammar of early German and argues that generalized V(erb)-to-C(omp)-movement, the core property of the verb-second phenomenon, goes back to Old High German times. In contrast to English, German has thus not been subject to a resetting of the verb-second parameter. Two further case studies deal with null subjects in Old High German and the diachrony of sentence negation, thereby addressing the issues of change in surface manifestations in relation to the underlying syntactic representation and the relation between historical syntax and dialect syntax.

scholarly journals CONTEXTUAL FEATURES OF THE IRREAL MODALITY IN THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (34) ◽  
Author(s):  
E.V ASTASHCHENKO ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Second Person ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Old Russian ◽  
Subjunctive Mood ◽  
Contextual Features ◽  
Alternate Reality ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Imperative Mood

The paper attempts to build a system of functions of the Russian subjunctive mood and irreal comparison constructions. The purpose of the article is to analyze the multi - level text modality (from an application of a modality-based semantic grammar to an aesthetic). The distinction between objective and subjective modality allows to identify their contextual features. There wasn’t an irreal modality in old Russian texts. But number of irreal signs had been rising since the aesthetic, art role of written language enhanced. Meanwhile the objective unreal modality of fairy tales was created by the subjunctive mood in Russian folklore. The unreal modality had reached its apotheosis in modern style fin de siècle. The irreal comparison constructions also were widespread, especially that came from the future tense form. But there were also Russian rare "imperfect" relicts. Subsequently, grammar constructions typical of art Nouveau, similar to the European "future in the past", creating an alternate reality, replaced by the imperative mood second person, with the illocutionary act of calling for change to the existing reality in the early avant-garde and by the imperative mood third-person with a particle of "pust’" in the mid-twentieth century, with the word "puskay", that gave its peculiar connotation and that was used not only as a formative particle, but also as a modal particle, resonant with a non-equivalent particle «avos’».

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