On the Grammaticality of Poetry

The Asyndetic Verb-Late Clause in Otfrid’s Evangelienbuch

Bibliographic Data

ID21722838
AuthorsKaterina Somers (University of Wisconsin–Madison, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume33
Issue4
Pages358-404
Publication date2021-12-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Germanic Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1470-5427 • E-ISSN: 1475-3014
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1470542721000015
OpenAlexW3214383271
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited30

This article discusses asyndetic verb-late clauses in Otfrid’s Evangelienbuch , which has long been considered a problematic text within the Old High German corpus in part because of clauses like these. Clauses with a dependent clause’s verbal syntax and no complementizer have been characterized as ungrammatical and/or rare (Behaghel 1932, Schrodt 2004, Axel 2007) and thus have not been included in accounts of early German syntax. I argue that asyndetic verb-late clauses are grammatical and that they can function as main or dependent clauses. Crucially, they demonstrate that main verb fronting was not obligatory in 9th-century German. Although Otfrid marked the main-subordinate asymmetry by various grammatical means, including verbal syntax, I demonstrate that verbal prosody also influenced syntax: Heavy verbs are more frequent in clause-late or -initial position and light verbs in clause-second position, regardless of the main–dependent distinction. I suggest that prosodically-sensitive verbal syntax is characteristic of Otfrid’s exclusively oral vernacular. In contrast, Otfrid imports the concept of differentiating main and dependent clauses grammatically from Latin. The Evangelienbuch , then, represents an attempt to transform an oral vernacular into a written language by imposing, however imperfectly, the norm of grammatically distinct main and dependent clauses onto a prosodically-sensitive verbal syntax

Agreement · Complementizer · Dependent clause · German · Linguistics · Modal verb · Non-finite clause · Prosody · Sentence · Syntax · Verb · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · Linguistics and language evolution · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy · Psychology

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