Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T08:45:35.039Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Note on MHG schulde(n) in the Nibelungenlied

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2008

Joe Salmons
Affiliation:
Program in Linguistics, FLL/SC Purdue University West Lafayette, IN [email protected]

Abstract

This word study traces the use of schulde(n) through the Nibelungenlied focusing on the central episodes in âventiuren 14–19. Considerable synchronic variability exists in the lexical semantics of MHG schulde(n). This variability is explicable in terms of the etymological development of schulde(n), a variability which is systematically exploited throughout the work. As the plot unfolds, the occurrences of this word and its closest derivational relatives shift steadily from semantically bleached uses and the neutral meaning of ‘obligation’ toward the narrow meaning ‘guilt’.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Germanic Linguistics 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

WORKS CITED

Bartsch, Karl and de Boor, Helmut. 1979. Das Nibelungenlied. Wiesbaden: F.A. Brockhaus.Google Scholar
Bekker, Hugo. 1971. The Nibelungenlied: A literary analysis. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jakob und Wilhelm Grimm. Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1854 ff. (Rpt. 1965–89.)Google Scholar
Flügel, Heinz. 1946. “Die Schuld der Nibelungen.” Geschichte und Geschicke: Zwölf Essays. Ed. Flügel, Heinz. München: Kösel. Pp. 192219.Google Scholar
Hatto, Arthur T. 1969. The Nibelungenlied. Middlesex: Penguin.Google Scholar
Kluge, Friedrich. 1976. Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Lehmann, Winfred P. 1986. A Gothic etymological dictionary. Leiden: E.J. Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lübben, August. 1877. Wörterbuch zu der Nibelunge Not (Liet). Oldenburg: Stalling.Google Scholar
Mowatt, D. G. and Sacker, Hugh. 1967. The Nibelungenlied: An interpretative commentary. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sweetser, Eve. 1990. From etymology to pragmatics: Metaphorical and cultural aspects of semantic structure. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs. 1989. “On the rise of epistemic meaning in English: An example of subjectification in semantic change.” Language 65: 3155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watkins, Calvert. 1985. The American heritage dictionary of Indo-European roots. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar