Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T09:15:01.410Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Adjectival Conversion of Unaccusatives in German

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2011

Helga Gese ,
Claudia Maienborn  and
Britta Stolterfoht
Helga Gese*
Affiliation:
University of Tübingen
Claudia Maienborn*
Affiliation:
University of Tübingen
Britta Stolterfoht*
Affiliation:
University of Tübingen
*
University of Tübingen, SFB 833 Meaning Constitution, Nauklerstr 35, 72074 Tübingen, Germany, [[email protected]]
University of Tübingen, SFB 833 Meaning constitution/German Department, Wilhelmstr. 50, 72074 Tübingen, Germany, [[email protected]]
University of Tübingen, German Department, Wilhelmstr. 50, 72074 Tübingen, Germany, [[email protected]]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The paper presents an in-depth study of the conditions under which unaccusative verbs in German take part in the formation of so-called ADJECTIVAL PASSIVES. It provides corpus-linguistic as well as psycho-linguistic evidence arguing that combinations of sein ‘to be’ with the participle of an unaccusative verb are systematically ambiguous between a present perfect reading (with sein as auxiliary) and an adjectival reading (with sein as copula). The first part of the paper highlights the adjectival character of the construction in question. The second part presents the results of three rating studies that help unravel the pragmatic conditions that govern the adjectival conversion of unaccusatives. This leads to the conclusion that what has become known as the “adjectival passive” construction is a rather general, broadly available word formation process that is characteristically shaped and controlled by pragmatic factors.*

Type
ARTICLES
Information
Journal of Germanic Linguistics , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , 06 May 2011 , pp. 101 - 140
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Germanic Linguistics 2011

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

REFERENCES

Alexiadou, Artemis, Rathert, Monika, & von Stechow, Arnim (eds.). 2003. Perfect explorations. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alexiadou, Artemis, & Anagnostopoulou, Elena. 2008. Structuring participles. Proceedings from the 26th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, ed. by Chang, Charles B. & Haynie, Hannah J., 33–41. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla.Google Scholar
Anagnostopoulou, Elena. 2003. Participles and voice. Alexiadou, , Rathert, , & von Stechow, 2003, 1–36.Google Scholar
Duden. 2005. Die Grammatik. 7th edn.Mannheim: Duden-Verlag.Google Scholar
Gese, Helga, Britta, Stolterfoht, & Maienborn, Claudia. 2009. Context effects in the formation of adjectival resultatives. The fruits of empirical linguistics, ed. by Winkler, Susanne & Featherston, Sam 2: Product, 231–262. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Gehrke, Berit. To appear. Passive states. Telicity, change, and state: A cross-categorial view of event structure, ed. by Demonte, Violeta & McNally, Louise. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Haider, Hubert. 1985. —ber “sein” und nicht “sein” zur Grammatik des Pronomens “sich.” Erkl—rende Syntax des Deutschen, ed. by Abraham, Werber, 223—254. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
Haider, Hubert. 2010. The syntax of German. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Helbig, Gerhard. 1983. Zustandspassiv, sein-Passiv oder Stativ? Studien zur deutschen Syntax, ed. by Helbig, Gerhard, vol. 1, 47–57. Leipzig: Verlag Enzyklop—die.Google Scholar
Helbig, Gerhard. 1987. Zur Klassifizierung der Konstruktion mit sein + Partizip II (Was ist ein Zustandspassiv?). Das Passiv im Deutschen. Akten des Colloquiums über das Passiv im Deutschen, Nizza 1986, ed. by the Centre de Recherche en Linguistique Germanique, 215–233. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Helbig, Gerhard, & Buscha, Joachim. 2001. Deutsche Grammatik. Berlin: Langenscheidt.Google Scholar
Höhle, Tilman. 1978. Lexikalistische Syntax: Die Aktiv-Passiv-Relation und andere Infinitkonstruktionen im Deutschen. Tübingen: Niemeyer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, Wolfgang. 1999. Wie sich das deutsche Perfekt zusammensetzt. Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik 113. 52–85.Google Scholar
Kratzer, Angelika. 1994. The event argument and the semantics of voice. Manuscript. Amherst. Available at: http://semanticsarchive.net/cgi-bin/browse.pl?search=angelika.Google Scholar
Kratzer, Angelika. 2000. Building statives. Proceedings from the 26th Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistic Society, 385–399. Berkley, CA: BLS.Google Scholar
Lang, Ewald. 1984. The semantics of coordination. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leiss, Elisabeth. 1992. Die Verbalkategorien des Deutschen. Ein Beitrag zur Theorie der sprachlichen Kategorisierung. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lenz, Barbara. 1994. Probleme der Kategorisierung deutscher Partizipien. Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft 12. 39–76.Google Scholar
Lieber, Rochelle. 1980. On the organization of the lexicon. Cambridge, MA: MIT dissertation.Google Scholar
Litvinov, Viktor P., & Nedjalkov, Vladimir P.. 1988. Resultativkonstruktionen im Deutschen. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
Löbner, Sebastian. 2002. Is the German Perfekt a perfect perfect? Proceedings from Sinn und Bedeutung 6, ed. by Katz, Graham, Reinhard, Sabine, & Reuter, Philip, 255–273. University of Osnabrück.Google Scholar
Maienborn, Claudia. 2005. On the limits of the Davidsonian approach: The case of copula sentences. Theoretical Linguistics 31. 275–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maienborn, Claudia. 2007. Das Zustandspassiv: Grammatische Einordnung—Bildungsbeschr—nkungen—Interpretationsspielraum. Zeitschrift für Germanistische Linguistik 35. 83–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maienborn, Claudia. 2009. Building event-based ad hoc properties: On the interpretation of adjectival passives. Proceedings from Sinn und Bedeutung 13, ed. by Riester, Arndt & Solstad, Torgrim, 35–49. Stuttgart: University of Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Maienborn, Claudia. 2011. Strukturausbau am Rande der Wörter: Adverbiale Modifikatoren beim Zustandspassiv. Sprachliches Wissen zwischen Lexikon und Grammatik. Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Jahrbuch 2010, ed. by Engelberg, Stefan, Holler, Anke, & Proost, Kristel, 317–343. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Musan, Renate. 2001. The present perfect in German: Outline of its semantic composition. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 19. 355–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Musan, Renate. 2002. The German perfect. Its semantic composition and its interactions with temporal adverbials. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Musan, Renate. 2003. Seit-adverbials in perfect constructions. Alexiadou, , Rathert, , & von Stechow, 2003, 253–276.Google Scholar
Nogami, Sanami. 2000. Resultativkonstruktionen im Deutschen und Japanischen. Frankfurt am Main: Lang.Google Scholar
Olsen, Susan. 1986. Wortbildung im Deutschen: Eine Einführung in die Theorie der Wortstruktur. Stuttgart: Kröner.Google Scholar
Olsen, Susan. 1987. Zum “substantivierten” Adjektiv im Deutschen: Deutsch als eine pro-Drop-Sprache. Studium Linguistik 21. 1–35.Google Scholar
Olsen, Susan. 1990. Konversion als ein kombinatorischer Wortbildungsprozeß. Linguistische Berichte 127. 185–216.Google Scholar
Rapp, Irene. 1997. Partizipien und semantische Struktur. Zu passivischen Konstruktionen mit dem 3. Status. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.Google Scholar
Rapp, Irene. 1998. Zustand? Passiv?цberlegungen zum sogenannten “Zustandspassiv.” Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft 15. 231–265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rapp, Irene. 2001. The attributive past participle: Structure and temporal interpretation. Audiatur Vox Sapientiae. A Festschrift for Arnim von Stechow, ed. by F—ry, Caroline & Sternefeld, Wolfgang. 392–409. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.Google Scholar
Schlücker, Barbara. 2005. Event-related modifiers in German adjectival passives. Proceedings from Sinn und Bedeutung 9, ed. by Maier, Emar, Bary, Corien, & Huitink, Janneke, 417–430. Nijmegen, The Netherlands: NCS.Google Scholar
Spencer, Andrew. 2010. Factorizing lexical relatedness. New impulses in word-formation, ed. by Olsen, Susan. Linguistische BerichteSonderheft 17. 133–171.Google Scholar
Stechow, Arnim von. 1998. German participles II in distributed morphology. Ms., Tübingen. [Unpublished work]Google Scholar
Stechow, Arnim von. 2002. German seit ‘since’ and the ambiguity of the German perfect. More than words: A Festschrift for Dieter Wunderlich, ed. by Stiebels, Barbara & Kaufmann, Irene, 393–432. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.Google Scholar
Stolterfoht, Britta, Gese, Helga, & Maienborn, Claudia. 2010. Word category conversion causes processing costs: Evidence from adjectival passives. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 17. 651–656.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wunderlich, Dieter. 1997. Participle perfect and passive in German. Düsseldorf: Arbeiten des SFB 282 “Theorie des Lexikons” 99.Google Scholar
Zifonun, Gisela, Hoffmann, Ludger, & Strecker, Bruno. 1997. Grammatik der deutschen Sprache. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar