Constructions Across Time and Space: Perspective Constructions
نویسندگان
چکیده
The German standard language and some of its dialects distinguish two types of directional adverbs, depending on the perspective taken in the speech event. For example, both SHG hinauf vs. herauf mean up. However, the two adverbs differ in that a motion verb modified by SHG hinauf will be construed not only as being UP(WARDS) but also as being AWAYFROM-(the)-ORIGO (we use the term origo to refer to the deictic center of a speech event). Similarly, SHG herauf means UP and TOWARDS-ORIGO. Languages like English encode the origo’s perspective only in some motion verbs (compare e.g. come vs. go). In addition to perspective encoding verbs, German provides a systematic way to encode the origo’s perspective in the above-mentioned adverbs. Historically, these pairs of adverbs are compositions of a perspective marker (meaning towards the origo or away from the origo) and a locational adverb (e.g. up, down, inwards, outwards). In this paper we retrace the history of these perspective adverbs, using an approach, which relies on cognitive linguistics and construction grammar (cf. e.g. Langacker 1991, Fillmore & Kay 1999, Fillmore, Kay & O’Connor 1998). First, we will attempt to reconstruct the emergence of the compound forms in Old High German (OHG). Second, we will examine how different 'histories of composition' lead to different forms in the German dialects (e.g. Suabian rauf/nauf vs. Swiss German uehe/uehi). Third, we will show that the marking of deictic perspective is dropped independently several times throughout the historic development of German dialects and sociolects (e.g. colloquial rauf or dialectal ufe). Last, we will see that the contemporary speakers' construal of spatial relations and their processing of
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