LingLunch : Berthold Crysmann

Thursday 29 September 2022, 12:00 to 13:00
Organisation: 
Karen De Clercq et Ira Noveck (LLF)
Lieu: 

LLF – Bât. ODG – 5e étage – Salle du conseil (533)

Berthold Crysmann (LLF)
An HPSG approach to German asymmetric coordinations

 I shall address a peculiar coordination construction in German, where the shared subject of the two conjuncts is not found peripheral, but is contained within the first conjunct. Following Höhle (1983), this construction is called “Subject Gaps in Finite/Fronted”
clauses (SGF).

(1) In den Wald ging der Jäger und fing einen Hasen.
into the woods went the hunter and caught a rabbit
‘Into the woods went the hunter and caught a rabbit.’

I shall discuss previous accounts, both symmetric coordination approaches (Frank 2002, Kathol 1999), as well as asymmetric adjunction approaches (Büring & Hartmann 1998). The analysis I shall propose will treat the construction as coordination semantically, yet assume a head complement structure that combines the licensing first conjunct with an incomplete (=slashed) coordinate structure complement. I shall show how this addresses the ATB condition, permits straightforward licensing of the subject gap, and provides better control over the second conjunct, thereby improving over the adjunct analysis.