Marga Reis

University of Tübingen | EKU Tübingen · Department of German Studies

We argue that echo wh-questions (EwhQs) are autonomous grammatical structures, and that their distinctive formal properties determine their semantics and pragmatics. Echo wh-sentences contain a wh-phrase in which the wh-element is narrowly focused, and a phrasal Q operator. Wh-phrase and Q operator determine a question semantics. Focus on wh determ...

This volume contains the complete collection of published and unpublished work on German grammar by Tilman N. Höhle. It consists of two parts. The first part is Topologische Felder, a book-length manuscript that was written in 1983 but was never finished nor published. It is a careful examination of the topological properties of German sentences, i...

In this paper I take issue with Antomo & Steinbach's (2010) analysis of so-called weil-V2 clauses, by which the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic properties distinguishing them from integrated verb-final weil-clauses are claimed to all follow from two central factors: (i) parataxis triggering prosodic desintegration, (ii) V2-order triggering asser...

This paper is about German finden as a subjective attitude verb (Sue findet, dass das gut ist/ Sue findet das gut), about which I aim to find out in what sense it has 'subjective meaning', and how this meaning is rooted in its lexial properties. Based on an intensive discussion of Saebø's (2009) influential analysis, I argue, contra Saebø, that fin...

German kaum constructions have remarkable grammatical and pragmatic properties, which have so far received little attention. This paper aims to provide an in-depth study of these properties, the principal claim being that the core pragmatic properties of all variants of kaum constructions can be derived in a 'compositional' rather than 'constructio...

Standardly, verb-first (V1) conditionals are considered to be mere variants of wenn-conditionals; accordingly, left-peripheral V1-clauses are analyzed as embedded into the prefields of declarative apodosis clauses, just like their V-end counterparts. We challenge this view, proposing instead that dependent V1-clauses are syntactically unembedded/un...

We report on finished work in a project that is concerned with providing methods, tools, best practice guidelines, and solutions for sustainable linguistic resources. The article discusses several general aspects of sustainability and introduces an approach to normalizing corpus data and metadata records. Moreover, the architecture of the sustainab...

1. The central issue for a linguistic theory of sentence types is to what extent their meanings (‘sentence moods’) can be compositionally derived from their form. T[ruckenbrodt]'s paper is a valiant, and altogether fascinating attempt to identify a specific contribution of the central formal feature of German sentence types – verb position viz. fin...

In this paper I take issue with the adverb-only theory proposed by Bring and Hartmann [Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 19 (2001) 229–281] for German focus particles (=FPs). Concentrating on the syntactic aspects, I argue (i) that both versions of this theory incorrectly delimit the FP adjunction sites, (ii) that it crucially depends on a Close...

This paper is about a minor and so far neglected sentence type in German: wh-root infinitivals such as Wohin gehen? ‘Where (should one/we) go?’. I concentrate on describing their formal and interpretive properties in detail, and relate these properties in a nonarbitrary manner by suggesting ways in which the salient aspects of their interpretation,...

In this paper we given a modular account of the grammar of additive particles. In doing this we take issue with the standard descriptions of focus particles, which are based on just one possible pattern: the particle preceding the main stressed constituent it relates to (its RC). Additive particles, however, occur in a second, equally unmarked patt...

This paper is concerned with two variants of Wh-movement, +Wh-question-movement and topicalization. Drawing on German material, we argue that they crucially differ as to the features of the landing sites: Wh-question movement is movement of +Wh-phrases into A-bar positions marked by +Wh, which assigns clausal scope to the +Wh-phrases; topicalizatio...

This paper is a commentary on Bierwisch's article (DRLAV, Revxie de Linguistique 33 (1985)) "On the nature of semantic form in natural language". The commentary provides background information concerning Bierwisch's conception of language and linguistics (§ 1), and examines, specifically, Bierwisch's views concerning the level of semantic form , th...

Provides commentaties to the linguistic articles in the anthology "Presuppositions in Philosophy and Linguistics" (1973), edited by Janos S. Petofi and Dorothea Franck. (Text is in German.) (DS)