Linguistische Berichte Heft 181

The following paper examines the graphematic representation of long vowels in German and focusses on the mute , which is analysed more thoroughly from a synchronic and diachronic perspective. The main aim ofthis paper is to show that phonological and graphematic representations involve several tiers, including the segmental and suprasegmental tier. Both the phonological and the graphematic suprasegmental tier encode the structural representation of syllables and words. Another aim is to explore the possibility of a non-functional approach to the graphematic system of German. In this kind of approach, the distribution of graphemes is analysed on the graphematic level alone, without taking their phonological function into consideration. The phonological functions of the graphematic signs under discussion will be shown to follow from their distributional properties. The main advantage of this approach is that it can explain why a particular graphematic sign may have several functions.

Double letters in German orthography are described as being conditioned by a complex interaction between segmental, suprasegmental, morphological and lexical triggers. lt is demonstrated that the relevant principles can be stated and organized in terms of constraints of Optimality Theory. The different triggers form a hierarchy of constraints, with low level segmental faithfulness conditions being violated by other faithfulness constraints that pertain to the levels of syllable structure and to a correspondance principle that ensures morphemic invariance.

Chomsky & Halle (1968) have explained the difference observed between compounds with a lefthanded stress contour such as salt water and syntactic phrases with a righthanded stress pattem such as salty water by subjecting the former to the Compound Stress Rule while characterizing the latter by the Nuclear Stress Rule. The studies of Marchand (1969) and Liberman & Sproat (1992) have noticed that right-stressed N+N sequences also exist in English, cf. winter night, silicon chip and kidnapper-killer. These linguists maintain that the stress pattem of this type of nominal collocation distinguishes the structures from morphological compounds and characterizes them as syntactic phrases. The present study takes issue with this view, arguing that all N+N pattems are morphological compounds. The difference between the left and right stress contours signals two distinct overall patterns of interpretation for compounds: Lefthand stress results when the interpretation is based on a compound-intemal inferred relation between the two constituents while righthand stress contours arise when a compound-extemal modifier-like r::lation is called for.

The imperative construction has received little attention within the syntactic tradition of Govemment and Binding Theory and the Minimalist Program. Where it is discussed, it is assumed to have an impoverished structure, which is claimed to account for its syntactic ,misbehavior'. This paper intends to show that these approaches are in need of revision. A universal process of imperative verb raising is shown to apply in all languages in which a syntactically determined imperative sentence type is attested, yielding a specific, uniform imperative structure. As a consequence of this raising, the verb is enabled to license overt subjects as weil as the canonical covert subjects, but disabled to cooccur with certain negative elements. The functional head in which the verb ultimately lands is responsible for the correspondence between the imperative morphology and logico-syntactic modality.