AG 5: Co- and subordination in German and other languages

AG-Koordination

Ingo Reich & Augustin Speyer (U Saarbrücken)

Abstract

In recent years, research on coordination and subordination saw a lively debate and substantial empirical progress in the field of non-canonical complex sentences. In particular alternating constructions like e.g. weil-V-final vs. weil-V2 (see e.g. Steinbach & Antomo 2010, Reis 2013), V-final vs. V1-conditionals, or symmetric vs. asymmetric coordination have been in the focus of recent research.

Despite the substantial empirical progress, the theoretical concepts to model those properties in syntax and semantics are still poorly understood and somewhat vague. So e.g. the concept of assertoric force, often associated with V2-alternatives, needs to be delineated from other relevant concepts like e.g. backgrounding. And it is still unclear how to precisely model the different kinds of non-canonical complex sentences. We think it promising to start from recent empirical discussions and contrast precise analyses in different frameworks (e.g. minimalism, HPSG, LFG, Construction Grammar).

Moving away from German, it has to be asked to what extent other languages show comparable variation, and whether such variants show similar syntactic, semantic and pragmatic behavior. This should also be looked at from a diachronic perspective. A final question we want to discuss in this AG concerns the use of such constructions:Why do languages provide alternating constructions? Do they differ in their (pragmatic) functionality? Or do we have to take psycholinguistic considerations into account like the processing of old and new information or uniform information density?

The AG is of interest to researchers working on the syntax/semantics/pragmatics interface specializing in subordination and working on German or any other language from a theoretical (synchronic/diachronic), L1-acquisition and/or typological perspective.

References

  • Antomo, Mailin & Markus Steinbach (2010). Desintegration und Interpretation: Weil-V2-Sätze an der Schnittstelle zwischen Syntax, Semantik und Pragmatik. Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft 29: 1-37.
  • Reis, Marga (2013). ‚Weil-V2‘-Sätze und (k)ein Ende? Anmerkungen zur Analyse von Antomo & Steinbach (2010). Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft 32: 221-262.

Programm

  4.3.2015    
  14:00 Ingo Reich & Augustin Speyer (U des Saarlandes)  
    Alternations in co- and subordination: phenomena and challenges  
  14:30 Gabriela Matos & Madalena Colaço (U Lissabon)  
    Coordination, subordination and paratactic relations  
  15:00 Rosemarie Lühr (HU Berlin)  
    Weil-Sätze in altindogermanischen Sprachen  
  15:30 Ira Eberhardt (U Tübingen)  
    German causal conjunction zumal: another PAC?  
  16:00 Pause  
  16:30 Stefanie Pitsch (U Göttingen)  
    Syntax and semantics of causal nachdem-clauses in German  
  17:00 Alessandra Tomaselli (U degli Studi di Verona) & Ermenegildo Bidese (U Trient)  
    The decline of asymmetric word order in Cimbrian subordination  
  17:30 Werner Frey (ZAS Berlin)  
    Über verschiedene Realisierungstypen von Kausalsätzen  
  18:00 Ulrike Freywald (U Potsdam)  
    Parataktische Konjunktionen – Syntax, Funktion und Entstehung einer Konnektorenklasse  
  5.3.2015    
  9:00 Mailin Antomo & Markus Steinbach (U Göttingen)  
    Dependent V2 – the Assertion Hypothesis revisited  
  10:00 Josep Quer (U Barcelona)  
    Preposed and postposed adverbial clauses in sign languages: insights from the visual-gestural modality  
  10:30 Christian Fortmann (U Tübingen)  
    Daccapo je-desto  
  11:00 Pause  
  11:30 Emanuela Sanfelici, Alexander Thiel, Corinna Trabandt & Petra Schulz (U Frankfurt/M.)  
    Alternating V2 and V-final in German relative clauses: new insights from acquisition  
  12:00 Hans-Martin Gärtner (U Budapest)  
    Approaching V2 from the North: a macrosyntactic view on dependent V2 variation in Icelandic  
  12:30 Nicholas Catasso (LMU München) & Roland Hinterhölzl (U Venedig)  
    On the question of subordination or coordination in V2 relatives in German  
  6.3.2015    
  11:30 Marga Reis (U Tübingen)  
    Zu einigen rätselhaften Fällen ‘adverbialer’ V2-Subordination im Deutschen  
  12:30 Sophie von Wietersheim (U Tübingen)  
    Binding as evidence for clausal attachment  
  13:00 Patrick Brandt et al. (IDS Mannheim)  
    Kontrolle und Obviation im Polnischen und Deutschen  
  13:30 Robert Külpmann & Vilma Symanczyk-Joppe (U Wuppertal)  
    Imperative or "pseudo-imperatives"? Argument omission in imperative -and/or- declarative constructions  
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