Augustin Speyer
Biographic Data
| ID | 1454041 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Augustin Speyer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Augustin |
| FAMILY NAME | Speyer |
| SIGNATURE | SPEYER A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Saarland University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1027-2635 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Left and right peripheries in discourse: An introduction
This paper provides an introduction to a collection of papers focusing on the left and right peripheries in discourse from both theoretical and empirical perspectives as well as across various languages. After outlining the main aims and questions underlying research on the left and right peripheries of discourse units, this paper presents an overview of the current state of the art by summarizing some of the key topics that have recently receive…
Wilhelm Braune: Althochdeutsche Grammatik I . Phonologie und Morphologie, 17. Auflage, neu bearbeitet v. Frank Heidermanns , Berlin u. Boston: de Gruyter 2023, XXX, 605 S. (Sammlung kurzer Grammatiken…
Adverbial reinforcement of demonstratives in dialectal German
In the German dialects of Rhine and Moselle Franconian, demonstratives are reinforced by locative adverbs do/lo ‘here/there’ in order to emphasize their deictic strength. Interestingly, these adverbs can also appear in the intermediate position, i.e., between the demonstrative and the noun (e.g. das do Bier ‘that there beer’), which is not possible in most other varieties of European German. Our questionnaire study and several written and oral so…
“Well would you believe it, I have failed the exam again”: Discourse relations in English and German personal narratives
This paper compares the linguistic realization of coordinating and subordinating discourse relations in English and German short personal narratives, paying particular attention to the context-dependence of (1) their overt marking with discourse connectives, and (2) their adjacent and non-adjacent positioning. The analysis is based on 20 written texts collected from university students. The use of discourse connectives with adjacently and non-adj…
Variation and its determinants: A corpus-based study of German schwa in the letters of Goethe
This paper studies some factors governing the presence or absence of word-final schwa in German. To obtain data as homogeneous as possible we focus on three adverbs outside morphological paradigms, namely, heut(e) ‘today’, gern(e) ‘willingly’, and bald(e) ‘soon’, in one particular text type, the letters written by one and the same person, the writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832). Apart from lexical differences between the items studied a…
Prosodic parallelism explaining morphophonological variation in German
Words in German show several instances of a seemingly optional schwa-zero alternation, both in relation with inflected forms as well as in the final position of stems and simplex words, as in Large-scale corpora are used as the main source of evidence for the verification or falsification of the hypothesis. A diverse set of nouns and adverbs involving schwa-zero alternations were studied in appropriate phrasal contexts, both from present-day Stan…
Discourse relations in English and German discourse: Local and not-so-local constraints
This paper examines the overt and non-overt coding of discourse relations in the argumentative discourse genre of editorial based on a contrastive study of British English and German editorials. Particular attention is given to the linguistic coding of discourse relations positioned adjacently and non-adjacently, and to the question of granularity. The analysis of the German editorials is based on the syntactic unit of sentence, while their Briti…
Focus movement and focus interpretation in Old English
Topicalization and Stress Clash Avoidance in the History of English
The book is concerned with the interaction of syntax, information structure and prosody in the history of English, demonstrating this with a case study of object topicalization. The approach is data-oriented, using material from syntactically parsed digital corpora of Old, Middle and Early Modern English, which serve as a solid foundation for conclusions. The use of object topicalization underwent a sharp decline from Old English until today. In …
Filling the German vorfeld in written and spoken discourse
The sentence-initial position (vorfeld) in German is filled in accordance with discourse structural consideration. Several types of elements compete for this position. Their distribution can be modelled by Stochastic Optimality Theory. It is filled in general by phrases that have at least one of the following functions: scene-setting elements, contrast, topic. In conflict cases the functions are ranked scene-setting >> contrast >> topic. In dialo…
Das Vorfeldranking und das Vorfeld-es
There are three kinds of non-phoric es: the topologically motivated prefield-es, the formal subject-es and the correlate es which is coindexed with a subject or object subordinate clause. All of them can stand in the ,prefield' of German declarative clauses. The theory of the prefield ranking should disallow the positioning of such elements in the prefield. A closer look at corpus data reveals that sentences with non-phoric es in the prefield do …
German vorfeld-filling as constraint interaction
The filling of the vorfeld (= clause-initial position in German declarative clauses) depends on information structural rather than strictly syntactic constraints. Referential phrases of one of the following three types are eligible for the vorfeld: scene-setting elements, contrastive elements and topics. The main point of this paper is to show that these types seem to be ranked: scene-setting elements are the most likely ones to appear in the vor…
Die Bedeutung der Centering Theory für Fragen der Vorfeldbesetzung im Deutschen
The Vorfeld (prefield) of German declarative V2 main clauses is syntactically underdetermined: It is only required that one phrase stands there, but it is not determined what kind of phrase. This is consequently determined by information structure. The goal of this paper is to look whether Centering Theory can make any predictions; this question is addressed after an overview is given over potential forms in which the center can appear. It turns …
Competing constraints on Vorfeldbesetzung in German
The filling of the 'Vorfeld' in German sentences is basically obligatory; which constituent, however, actually moves to the Vorfeld is underdetermined by syntax and thus governed presumably by discourse factors. Coming from English, there are certain competing expectations one could have: either the topic — more specifically, the backward-looking center — of a sentence is moved to the Vorfeld, or an element in a poset relationship to a set mentio…
Prosodic parallelism explaining morphophonological variation in German
Words in German show several instances of a seemingly optional schwa-zero alternation, both in relation with inflected forms as well as in the final position of stems and simplex words, as in Large-scale corpora are used as the main source of evidence for the verification or falsification of the hypothesis. A diverse set of nouns and adverbs involving schwa-zero alternations were studied in appropriate phrasal contexts, both from present-day Stan…
Discourse relations in English and German discourse: Local and not-so-local constraints
This paper examines the overt and non-overt coding of discourse relations in the argumentative discourse genre of editorial based on a contrastive study of British English and German editorials. Particular attention is given to the linguistic coding of discourse relations positioned adjacently and non-adjacently, and to the question of granularity. The analysis of the German editorials is based on the syntactic unit of sentence, while their Briti…
Competing constraints on Vorfeldbesetzung in German
The filling of the 'Vorfeld' in German sentences is basically obligatory; which constituent, however, actually moves to the Vorfeld is underdetermined by syntax and thus governed presumably by discourse factors. Coming from English, there are certain competing expectations one could have: either the topic — more specifically, the backward-looking center — of a sentence is moved to the Vorfeld, or an element in a poset relationship to a set mentio…
Die Bedeutung der Centering Theory für Fragen der Vorfeldbesetzung im Deutschen
The Vorfeld (prefield) of German declarative V2 main clauses is syntactically underdetermined: It is only required that one phrase stands there, but it is not determined what kind of phrase. This is consequently determined by information structure. The goal of this paper is to look whether Centering Theory can make any predictions; this question is addressed after an overview is given over potential forms in which the center can appear. It turns …
German vorfeld-filling as constraint interaction
The filling of the vorfeld (= clause-initial position in German declarative clauses) depends on information structural rather than strictly syntactic constraints. Referential phrases of one of the following three types are eligible for the vorfeld: scene-setting elements, contrastive elements and topics. The main point of this paper is to show that these types seem to be ranked: scene-setting elements are the most likely ones to appear in the vor…
Das Vorfeldranking und das Vorfeld-es
There are three kinds of non-phoric es: the topologically motivated prefield-es, the formal subject-es and the correlate es which is coindexed with a subject or object subordinate clause. All of them can stand in the ,prefield' of German declarative clauses. The theory of the prefield ranking should disallow the positioning of such elements in the prefield. A closer look at corpus data reveals that sentences with non-phoric es in the prefield do …
Topicalization and Stress Clash Avoidance in the History of English
The book is concerned with the interaction of syntax, information structure and prosody in the history of English, demonstrating this with a case study of object topicalization. The approach is data-oriented, using material from syntactically parsed digital corpora of Old, Middle and Early Modern English, which serve as a solid foundation for conclusions. The use of object topicalization underwent a sharp decline from Old English until today. In …
Filling the German vorfeld in written and spoken discourse
The sentence-initial position (vorfeld) in German is filled in accordance with discourse structural consideration. Several types of elements compete for this position. Their distribution can be modelled by Stochastic Optimality Theory. It is filled in general by phrases that have at least one of the following functions: scene-setting elements, contrast, topic. In conflict cases the functions are ranked scene-setting >> contrast >> topic. In dialo…
Focus movement and focus interpretation in Old English
Discourse relations in English and German discourse: Local and not-so-local constraints
This paper examines the overt and non-overt coding of discourse relations in the argumentative discourse genre of editorial based on a contrastive study of British English and German editorials. Particular attention is given to the linguistic coding of discourse relations positioned adjacently and non-adjacently, and to the question of granularity. The analysis of the German editorials is based on the syntactic unit of sentence, while their Briti…
Prosodic parallelism explaining morphophonological variation in German
Words in German show several instances of a seemingly optional schwa-zero alternation, both in relation with inflected forms as well as in the final position of stems and simplex words, as in Large-scale corpora are used as the main source of evidence for the verification or falsification of the hypothesis. A diverse set of nouns and adverbs involving schwa-zero alternations were studied in appropriate phrasal contexts, both from present-day Stan…
“Well would you believe it, I have failed the exam again”: Discourse relations in English and German personal narratives
This paper compares the linguistic realization of coordinating and subordinating discourse relations in English and German short personal narratives, paying particular attention to the context-dependence of (1) their overt marking with discourse connectives, and (2) their adjacent and non-adjacent positioning. The analysis is based on 20 written texts collected from university students. The use of discourse connectives with adjacently and non-adj…
Variation and its determinants: A corpus-based study of German schwa in the letters of Goethe
This paper studies some factors governing the presence or absence of word-final schwa in German. To obtain data as homogeneous as possible we focus on three adverbs outside morphological paradigms, namely, heut(e) ‘today’, gern(e) ‘willingly’, and bald(e) ‘soon’, in one particular text type, the letters written by one and the same person, the writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832). Apart from lexical differences between the items studied a…
Adverbial reinforcement of demonstratives in dialectal German
In the German dialects of Rhine and Moselle Franconian, demonstratives are reinforced by locative adverbs do/lo ‘here/there’ in order to emphasize their deictic strength. Interestingly, these adverbs can also appear in the intermediate position, i.e., between the demonstrative and the noun (e.g. das do Bier ‘that there beer’), which is not possible in most other varieties of European German. Our questionnaire study and several written and oral so…
Left and right peripheries in discourse: An introduction
This paper provides an introduction to a collection of papers focusing on the left and right peripheries in discourse from both theoretical and empirical perspectives as well as across various languages. After outlining the main aims and questions underlying research on the left and right peripheries of discourse units, this paper presents an overview of the current state of the art by summarizing some of the key topics that have recently receive…
Wilhelm Braune: Althochdeutsche Grammatik I . Phonologie und Morphologie, 17. Auflage, neu bearbeitet v. Frank Heidermanns , Berlin u. Boston: de Gruyter 2023, XXX, 605 S. (Sammlung kurzer Grammatiken…
Philosophy (14 works) · Linguistics (13 works) · German (11 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Linguistic research and analysis (7 works) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (7 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (6 works) · History (5 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (4 works) · Lexicography and Language Studies (4 works)