Wieder in morphology

This paper gives a description of the structural behavior and semantic properties of wieder (‘again’) within German deverbal nominalizations (like Wiedervereinigung ‘reunification’) and discusses theoretical ramifications. Drawing on numerous novel observations and diagnostics, this paper argues that the semantic restriction on restitutive readings within such nominalizations follows from the singularity of the noun plus the definite determiner (their plural counterparts are discussed as well). Moreover, the result state in the verbs involved need not have a syntactic representation, in line with recent findings (cf. Weir 2017). All in all, then, this article is an exercise in structural downsizing.