The Grammar of Identity: Intensifiers and Reflexives in Germanic Languages

by Gast; Volker

• ISBN13: 9780415394116
• ISBN10: 0415394112
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-09-15
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

All major Germanic languages except Yiddish have intensifiers that have developed from the reconstructed Proto-Germanic form *selba-. For example, in English we have "herself," in Icelandic there is "sjalfur "and in Gothic - "silba." This book deals with the question of why intensifiers and reflexives are formally indistinguishable in so many languages of the world. Using evidence from germanic languages, this is a semasiological study on the family of self-forms in Germanic languages.

Author Biography

Volker Gast is currently a researcher and lecturer at the Free University of Berlin.

Table of Contents

List of tables	ix
List of figures	x
Acknowledgements	xi
Abbreviations and glosses	xiii
1 Introduction	1	(21)
1.1 SELF-forms in Germanic languages	1	(2)
1.2 The meaning of SELF	3	(3)
1.3 Three use types of intensifiers	6	(2)
1.4 The structure of the book	8	(1)
1.5 Previous analyses: an overview	9	(13)
2 The distribution and morphology of head-adjacent SELF	22	(14)
2.1 Syntax and inflection of head-adjacent SELF	22	(8)
2.2 Combinatorial properties of head-adjacent SELF in English	30	(6)
3 Head-adjacent intensifiers as expressions of an identity function	36	(30)
3.1 Intensifiers versus free focus and topic constructions	36	(4)
3.2 The interpretation of head-adjacent SELF	40	(4)
3.3 Focus suppositions and contrast: identity vs. alterity	44	(2)
3.4 Deriving the various readings of head-adjacent intensifiers	46	(12)
3.5 Previous analyses of head-adjacent intensifiers	58	(7)
3.6 Summary	65	(1)
4 The syntax of head-distant intensifiers	66	(33)
4.1 The distribution of head-distant SELF in German	66	(12)
4.2 The distribution of head-distant SELF in Swedish	78	(3)
4.3 The distribution of head-distant SELF in English	81	(3)
4.4 Towards a derivational analysis of head-distant intensifiers	84	(13)
4.5 Summary	97	(2)
5 Combinatorial properties of head-distant intensifiers	99	(18)
5.1 Exclusive head-distant SELF	99	(13)
5.2 Inclusive head-distant SELF	112	(4)
5.3 Summary	116	(1)
6 The interpretation of head-distant intensifiers	117	(37)
6.1 The interpretation of exclusive SELF	117	(4)
6.2 From syntax to semantics	121	(7)
6.3 The syntax and semantics of exclusive SELF	128	(5)
6.4 The interpretation of inclusive SELF	133	(4)
6.5 Deriving the function of inclusive SELF	137	(4)
6.6 Previous analyses of head-distant intensifiers	141	(12)
6.7 Summary	153	(1)
7 Reflexivity and the identity function	154	(43)
7.1 Typologies of reflexive markers	155	(8)
7.2 The distribution of anaphors and pronominals	163	(8)
7.3 SELF: identity predicate or identity function?	171	(7)
7.4 Binding and conversational inferencing	178	(1)
7.5 Reflexivity and Optimality Theory	179	(2)
7.6 Kiparsky's reflexivity framework	181	(5)
7.7 Reflexive-marking and the identity function	186	(9)
7.8 Summary	195	(2)
8 The grammar of reflexivity in Germanic languages	197	(23)
8.1 Reflexivity in Scandinavian languages	198	(5)
8.2 Reflexivity in Continental West Germanic and Afrikaans	203	(4)
8.3 English self-forms as markers of reflexivity	207	(11)
8.4 Summary	218	(2)
Notes	220	(11)
Sources	231	(2)
References	233	(13)
Indices	246	(1)
Author index	246	(4)
Language index	250	(1)
Subject index	251