Werden – ein Chamäleon der Sprache : Zum Werdegang von werden
Author
Summary, in English
The topic of this thesis is the evolutionary history of werden in German with reference to its four functions – as full verb, as copula and as auxiliary verb in combination with the past participle in the Vorgangspassiv and also in combination with the infinitive to denote future and, in some circumstances, epistemic modal events.
On the basis of scrutiny of diachronic results and a discussion of views put forward in the synchronic literature and empirically corroborated by a detailed analysis of a corpus, it is argued that the unique position of werden in the German verb arena was made possible by its non-specified meaning of dynamic existence, by its medial, non-agentive diathesis and, crucially, by its additivity, and its actional and aspectual underdetermination.
The unique combination of these characteristics is the prerequisite for weerden´s special developmental strategy, i.e. connecting with diverse partners, e.g. noun, adjective participle, infinitive. These interactions with various partners made it possible for werden to acquire a developmental history characterised by increasing complexity and diversity. The outcome was a development that extends into the areas of aspect, voice, tense and mood.
The thesis shows how that development progressed, differing from the ‘normal’ course of a grammaticalization in that it involved no morphological, scarcely any phonological and no true lexical impoverishment of the verb werden. All that was required of the verb was its extreme adaptability, and this property was inherent in its complex of characteristics. As to the lexical meaning of the verb, werden seems to manifest itself as a marker of dynamic existence, that may appear in any of the verb’s functions partly as an inherent change element and partly as a confirmation effect implying speaker-guaranteed confirmation of the statement.
On the basis of scrutiny of diachronic results and a discussion of views put forward in the synchronic literature and empirically corroborated by a detailed analysis of a corpus, it is argued that the unique position of werden in the German verb arena was made possible by its non-specified meaning of dynamic existence, by its medial, non-agentive diathesis and, crucially, by its additivity, and its actional and aspectual underdetermination.
The unique combination of these characteristics is the prerequisite for weerden´s special developmental strategy, i.e. connecting with diverse partners, e.g. noun, adjective participle, infinitive. These interactions with various partners made it possible for werden to acquire a developmental history characterised by increasing complexity and diversity. The outcome was a development that extends into the areas of aspect, voice, tense and mood.
The thesis shows how that development progressed, differing from the ‘normal’ course of a grammaticalization in that it involved no morphological, scarcely any phonological and no true lexical impoverishment of the verb werden. All that was required of the verb was its extreme adaptability, and this property was inherent in its complex of characteristics. As to the lexical meaning of the verb, werden seems to manifest itself as a marker of dynamic existence, that may appear in any of the verb’s functions partly as an inherent change element and partly as a confirmation effect implying speaker-guaranteed confirmation of the statement.
Department/s
Publishing year
2013
Language
German
Publication/Series
Lunder germanistische Forschungen
Volume
73
Full text
Document type
Dissertation
Publisher
Lund University
Topic
- Languages and Literature
Keywords
- auxiliary
- scalarity
- actionality
- aspectuality
- Vendler classes
- internal temporal properties
- inchoativity
- speaker reference
- implied speaker confirmation
Status
Published
Supervisor
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0348-2146
- ISBN: 978-91-7473-471-3
Defence date
1 June 2013
Defence time
10:15
Defence place
Sal L201, Språk- och litteraturcentrum, Helgonabacken 12, Lund
Opponent
- Elisabeth Leiss (Professor)