Changes Between the Lines: Diachronic contact phenomena in written Pennsylvania German

Doris Stolberg

Published by De Gruyter 2015

Changes Between the Lines

Diachronic contact phenomena in written Pennsylvania German

Doris Stolberg

Volume 118 in the series Studia Linguistica Germanica

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110339505

Overview
Contents

About this book

The book investigates the diachronic dimension of contact-induced language change based on empirical data from Pennsylvania German (PG), a variety of German in long-term contact with English. Written data published in local print media from Pennsylvania (USA) between 1868 and 1992 are analyzed with respect to semantic changes in the argument structure of verbs, the use of impersonal constructions, word order changes in subordinate clauses and in prepositional phrase constructions.
The research objective is to trace language change based on diachronic empirical data, and to assess whether existing models of language contact make provisions to cover the long-term developments found in PG. The focus of the study is thus twofold: first, it provides a detailed analysis of selected semantic and syntactic changes in Pennsylvania German, and second, it links the empirical findings to theoretical approaches to language contact.
Previous investigations of PG have drawn a more or less static, rather than dynamic, picture of this contact variety. The present study explores how the dynamics of language contact can bring about language mixing, borrowing, and, eventually, language change, taking into account psycholinguistic processes in (the head of) the bilingual speaker.

Author / Editor information

Doris Stolberg, Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, Germany.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
List of Tables and Figures Publicly Available Download PDF	XI
Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	XIII
Outline Publicly Available Download PDF	XV
Part I: Theoretical and sociohistoric background
1. Theoretical background Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
2. The Pennsylvania Germans and their language(s) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	34
Part II: Data analyses
3. The PG data corpus Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
4. Semantic-syntactic changes: Form-meaning and form-function relationships Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	110
5. Structural variation and incipient change Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	178
6. Verb position in complement dass-clauses Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
7. Extraposition of prepositional phrases Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
8. Stranded prepositions in Pennsylvania German Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	230
9. General conclusions and implications Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	276
Appendix Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	295
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	317

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Scholars of German and English Studies, Linguists, Institutes, Libraries
Pages
- Front matter: 16
- Main content: 319
Keywords: Pennsylvania German; Language Contact; Language Change

eBook

Published: August 17, 2015
ISBN: 9783110339505

Hardcover

Published: July 30, 2015
ISBN: 9783110339338