In the field of comparative German-Dutch linguistics, there is a preconception that AN-compounds are much more productive in German than in Dutch (Booij 2019: 10, Hüning 2004: 160). After analyzing...Show moreIn the field of comparative German-Dutch linguistics, there is a preconception that AN-compounds are much more productive in German than in Dutch (Booij 2019: 10, Hüning 2004: 160). After analyzing a list of German and Dutch AN-compounds, this does not seem true. Both languages have a substantial number of AN-compounds. In the framework of Construction Morphology, the productivity of a pattern is defined as the openness of one ore more ‘slots’ (Booij 2010, Jackendoff & Audring 2020). AN-compounds have two slots: in the first slot we find adjectives, in the second slot we find nouns. A pattern is productive if the slots are open for new words, so new combinations (new AN-compounds) can easily be made and understood. In this MA thesis, the lists of attested German and Dutch AN-compounds, collected from the Celex database (http://celex.mpi.nl), will be analyzed for each variable slot (A and N respectively). The goal is to find out which of the slots in the [AN]N pattern is more open and to identify potential restrictions for each slot. We could assume that some adjectives are more frequent than others, for instance that there are a lot of compounds which start with half-/ Halb- but not so many with the Dutch adjective astraal- or the German adjective achter-. This will raise the question whether the pattern [AN]N is productive or if it is just the subpattern [half-N]N and if those subpatterns influence our perception of the productivity of the [AN]N pattern. It might be possible that those subpatterns are in fact the productive ones instead of the [AN]N pattern itself. In this thesis I will research how productive the compounding of adjectives and nouns is in German and Dutch, what the differences are between the two languages and what the subpatterns tell us about the productivity of a word formation.Show less
This thesis discusses the linguistic background of suffixes, and provides quantifications for prop-erties shown to be related to the morphological productivity of suffixation processes. In addition...Show moreThis thesis discusses the linguistic background of suffixes, and provides quantifications for prop-erties shown to be related to the morphological productivity of suffixation processes. In addition,computational models will be explored and discussed, alongside possible uses for these models infuture research into morphological productivity.Show less
In this thesis I examine the form and meaning of German verbs ending in -ern. This verbal suffix is not productive and not much has been written about it. Fleisch & Barz (2012: 430 f.) ascribe...Show moreIn this thesis I examine the form and meaning of German verbs ending in -ern. This verbal suffix is not productive and not much has been written about it. Fleisch & Barz (2012: 430 f.) ascribe a few functions to the ending -ern: The first is iterativity, for example in blickern. The second is an onomatopoeic function as in blubbern. The –(e)r(n) could also find its basis in a noun, like Bäcker. Verbs with -ern bare many similarities to verbs ending in -eln. About these latter some recent literature can be found. The -ern-verbs however remain unresearched. In grammars verbs ending in -ern, when mentioned at all, are ascribed iterativity. However, this is not always the case. In this thesis I have researched the origins of -ern of unprefixed verbs out of the CELEX corpus and determine if these are nominal, verbal or in some cases even adjectival by checking their etymology in several dictionaries (Duden Online , Kluge 2011, Pfeifer e. a. 1989). I have looked if a specific meaning can be attributed to a specific sort of -ern, by listing and comparing the semantics of the researched verbs. This meaning could be iterativity, but also attenuation, which is the case for some verbs ending in -eln (cf. Audring, Booij & Jackendoff 2017). If verbs with a nominal -ern have an iterative meaning, this could also mean that the iterative meaning is not limited to the verbal -ern. Also, it might be possible that the verbs could be assigned a certain Aktionsart.Show less
The thesis concerns Serudung Murut, a language of the Southwest Sabah subgroup of the Austronesian language family. Outside of a wordlist in Lobel (2016), virtually no published material on...Show moreThe thesis concerns Serudung Murut, a language of the Southwest Sabah subgroup of the Austronesian language family. Outside of a wordlist in Lobel (2016), virtually no published material on Serudung Murut exists. Data for this thesis comes from three main sources: two corpuses of language material collected in the periods of 1988-1991 and 2013-2016 by SIL researcher Jack Rushing, and one corpus of language material collected by the author for the author's Fieldwork (Internship) module in the period of January 16 to February 17, 2017. The bulk of language material comes from the variety of Serudung Murut spoken in the village of Serudung Laut in the western-most corner of Tawau Division, Sabah, Malaysia. Serudung Murut displays full lexical reduplication (mugad "travel" > mugad-mugad "wander about"), full root reduplication (gadingan "elephant" > gading-gadingan "lots of elephants"), and partial reduplication (bariu "wind" > babariu "windy"). Reduplication may occur with a stem from any word class, and may either alter the word class or the semantics of the stem, or both. Sometimes, a word which displays reduplication is amorphous, as with certain animal names and body parts: kakapir "praying mantis", sisigon "stingless bee", susuap "kneecap", bibingo "ankle". The thesis frames an analysis of reduplication in Serudung Murut according to a recent model devised by Jackendoff & Audring (to appear), called Relational Morphology. Relational Morphology is an offshoot of the Parallel Architecture (Jackendoff, 2002), a linguistic model which proposes that Phonology, Semantics and Syntax are independent linguistic components and are active simultaneously in speech production and parsing. Relational Morphology generalizes patterns between words in a lexicon and represents them as schemas. Therefore, a description of Serudung Murut reduplication according to this framework must posit generalized schemas which capture not only the structural variation, between full and partial reduplication, but also the variation in semantic effects.Show less
Beim Genus ist es eigentlich eine Frage, weshalb eine Sprache überhaupt einen Unterschied macht bezüglich der Art der Teilnehmer im Satz. Diese Frage macht Genus "the most puzzling of the...Show moreBeim Genus ist es eigentlich eine Frage, weshalb eine Sprache überhaupt einen Unterschied macht bezüglich der Art der Teilnehmer im Satz. Diese Frage macht Genus "the most puzzling of the grammatical categories" oder am rätselhaftesten im Vergleich zu anderen grammatikalischen Kategorien wie Numerus und Tempus. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist zu erforschen, ob Kinder mit einem Migrationshintergrund, das Niederländische bei der Zuweisung der deutschen Genera verwenden.Show less
