Unstressed versus stressed German additive auch – what determines a speaker’s choice

Bibliographic Data

ID21226937
AuthorsLaura Reimer (0000-0001-8074-8526, University of Münster, corresponding author), Christine Dimroth (0000-0003-0483-7839, University of Münster)
Year2022
Volume8
Issue1
Pages177-184
Publication date2022-12-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLinguistics Vanguard (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2199-174X • E-ISSN: 2199-174X
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/lingvan-2021-0154
OpenAlexW4307251047
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited18

The German additive particle auch associates with a constituent (the associated constituent, AC) which is related to contextually relevant discourse alternative(s). There are two versions of auch in German: a stressed and an unstressed version. Although in most of the cases, speakers have the choice of using the unstressed or stressed version, there are clear preferences for using one version over the other. It is the aim of the present paper to contribute to a clearer picture concerning factors constraining speakers’ preferences. By integrating another focus particle ( nur , ‘only’) in the context, we ask whether syntactic ( nur precedes its AC) and information structural properties (the AC being a focus) of a context sentence influence the choice of a speaker, or whether speakers apply default mappings (subjects as prototypical topics). The results of a sentence fragment arrangement task indicate that speakers strongly rely on default mechanisms, but that they are also influenced by syntactic and information structural properties of the context to some extent

German · Linguistics · Sentence · History · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Linguistic research and analysis · Philosophy · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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