Helmut Weiß

Inhalt: – Vorwort – Arnulf Deppermann: Lean syntax: how argument structure is adapted to its interactive, material, and temporal ecology – Helmut Weiß & Thomas Strobel: Neuere Entwicklungen in der Dialektsyntax – Augustin Speyer: N [...]

Grammatiken sind (metaphorisch gesprochen) Anweisungen zum richtigen Gebrauch einer Sprache. Interessanterweise zeigen Grammatiken offenbar Lücken, die dadurch entstehen, dass für bestimmte Bereiche Regeln (bzw. Formen) ganz fehlen oder dass [...]

This article proposes definitions of two key concepts in linguistics, dialect and language, and formulates these in analogy to the biological concepts population and species. This allows for a much more coherent way of defining these concepts. In addition, a three-level model of language consisting of (i) an innate faculty of language (FL), (ii) I-language, and (iii) utterances will be proposed. Some of the more radical consequences resulting from this approach concern standard languages which are considered as entirely different entities, and languages traditionally known as Chinese, German, Dutch etc. which are claimed not to exist from a strictly linguistic point of view.

Coordinative compounds like Dichtermaler 'poet painter' show a coordinative internal relation between the two constituents they consist of. In contrast to determinative compounds they have not gained much attention in research in the last years so it is unclear whether they exist at all in languages like German and if so, whether they fall into several subclasses and in which ones. This article proposes a new typology of coordinative compounds based on the notion of (different kinds of) set union demonstrating that coordinative compounds do occur in German and that there are more types than previously thought.

Vorwort der Redaktion

Beiträge aus Forschung und Anwendung

– Ewa Trutkowski & Helmut Weiß: Zeugen gesucht! Zur Geschichte des generischen Maskulinums im Deutschen.
Abstract: On the basis of synchronic and diachronic da [...]