Papers by Tanja Ackermann
Germanic Genitives, 2018
This paper deals with the status of the s-marker with personal names in German from a diachronic ... more This paper deals with the status of the s-marker with personal names in German from a diachronic perspective. On the basis of corpus data it is argued that the deflexion of personal names in genitive phrases is much more advanced than it has been claimed in the literature: only the invariant markers occurs frequently, namely in constructions of the type Hildes Wohnung 'Hilde's flat'. Thus, it becomes obvious that such constructions, which are less widely studied than their English or Swedish counterparts, play a special role. It will be argued that an interpretation of the-s in these adnominal possessive constructions as a kind of prenominal genitive use fails. Given this, a comparison with the development of possessive-s in the history of English reveals that there are striking similarities with the developments in German.
Folia linguistica (special issue), 2017
The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the topics and recent developments in the rese... more The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the topics and recent developments in the research on the morphosyntax of proper names. The article reflects on the ways in which and the reasons why proper names may be morphosyntactically different from common nouns. It argues that the distinction between proper names and proper nouns is essential for the discussion of the topic, and it shows that there are considerable differences regarding morphological and syntactic properties both among the various name classes as well as cross-linguistically. In the second part of the paper, selected aspects dealt with in the recent literature are discussed in more detail, including those on the morphological and syntactic properties of proper names and proper nouns, and the specific morphosyntactic constructions proper names and proper nouns can occur in.
Sichtbare und hörbare Morphologie, 2017
In German, differences between the declension of words belonging to
the peripheral nominal domain... more In German, differences between the declension of words belonging to
the peripheral nominal domain (mainly proper names, abbreviations, and loan words) and that of more prototypical nouns can be observed. This can be explained by the competition of two motivations, which are weighted differently depending on the nature of the noun in question: the overt expression of morphosyntactic properties vs. ‘morphological schema constancy’, which is more important for peripheral nouns. The notion ‘morphological schema constancy’ refers to word form stability through the avoidance of inflectional elements that strongly affect the shape of a word (e.g. Taxi-s vs. Tax-en ‘taxis’, or umlaut), or the avoidance of inflectional elements at all (d-es Barock-Ø vs. d-es Barock-s ‘the-GEN.SG Baroque-GEN.SG’). In the present study, we report the results of a selfpaced reading task, in which we compared reading times of inflected (des Barock-s) vs. non-inflected nouns (des Barock-Ø) within a genitive phrase. Since the non-inflected variants evoke significantly shorter processing times, our findings indicate that ‘morphological schema constancy’ leads to a facilitation of word recognition of peripheral nouns; thus they support the idea that ‘schema constancy’ is a functional principle that plays an important role in determining morphological variation.
Linguistik der Familiennamen (Germanistische Linguistik 225–227), 2014
This paper will focus on the morphosyntactic status of complex
personal names in German. From a ... more This paper will focus on the morphosyntactic status of complex
personal names in German. From a diachronic point of view, it is argued that combined first and last names shifted from syntactic (i. e. appositional or attributive) towards rather morphological (i. e. compound-like) structures, in which family names can be analysed as grammatical heads. This shift goes along with the increase in importance of family names in the period of Early Modern German. Corpus data (16th to 18th century) provide evidence for this formal restructuring of the name components (e. g. the emergence of single
case marking on the last name: Ludwigs des Langen >> Ludwig Langs).
Beiträge zur Namenforschung, 2011
This article examines for the first time to which extent the actual German trade name creation ma... more This article examines for the first time to which extent the actual German trade name creation marks gender by specific phonological structures. On the basis of names such as Aloe Vera or Click it will be demonstrated how the names of deodorants for women and men differ with respect to their number of syllables, sonority, their vowels, their
structure of syllables, their onsets and offsets, consonant clusters, and hiatuses. The analysis confirms the hypothesis that specific phonological patterns are preferred in the naming of men’s deodorants, while other phonological patterns are chosen by naming women’s deodorants. Furthermore the findings establish for the first time a close structural relation between first names and trade names.
Edited Volumes by Tanja Ackermann
The papers in this volume focus on the dynamics of one specific cell in morphological paradigms –... more The papers in this volume focus on the dynamics of one specific cell in morphological paradigms – the genitive. The high amount of diachronic and synchronic variation in all Germanic languages makes the genitive a particularly interesting phenomenon since it allows us, for example, to examine comparable but slightly different diachronic pathways, the relation of synchronic and diachronic variation, and the interplay of linguistic levels (phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics). The findings in this book enhance our understanding of the genitive not only by describing its properties, but also by discussing its demarcation from functional competitors and related grammatical items. Under-researched aspects of well-described languages as well as from lesser-known languages (Faroese, Frisian, Luxembourgish, Yiddish) are examined. The papers included are methodologically diverse and the topics covered range from morphology, syntax, and semantics to the influence of (normative) grammars and the perception and prestige of grammatical items.
Folia Linguistica (special issue), 2017
Books by Tanja Ackermann
Eigennamen weisen im Gegenwartsdeutschen im Vergleich zu anderen Substantiven einige grammatische... more Eigennamen weisen im Gegenwartsdeutschen im Vergleich zu anderen Substantiven einige grammatische Unterschiede auf, die sich erst in der jüngeren Sprachgeschichte herausgebildet haben. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht dieses spezielle morphosyntaktische Verhalten für die prototypischste Namenklasse, die Personennamen, mit Blick auf die diachrone Entwicklung. So werden im Wesentlichen die Struktur des zweiteiligen Gesamtnamens einer Person, die (De-)Flexion hinsichtlich Kasus und Numerus sowie der Status und die Entwicklung des possessiven -s untersucht und (sprachwandel)theoretisch modelliert. Anhand umfangreicher diachroner und synchroner Korpus-, Fragebogen- und Experimentalstudien wird gezeigt, in welchem zeitlichen Rahmen Personennamen ihre Sonderstellung ausgebaut haben, durch welche Determinanten dies bedingt ist und wie das sukzessive grammatische Abrücken von den Appellativen zu erklären ist. Insgesamt schließt die Arbeit somit eine Forschungslücke innerhalb der (diachronen) Nominalmorphologie des Deutschen.
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Papers by Tanja Ackermann
the peripheral nominal domain (mainly proper names, abbreviations, and loan words) and that of more prototypical nouns can be observed. This can be explained by the competition of two motivations, which are weighted differently depending on the nature of the noun in question: the overt expression of morphosyntactic properties vs. ‘morphological schema constancy’, which is more important for peripheral nouns. The notion ‘morphological schema constancy’ refers to word form stability through the avoidance of inflectional elements that strongly affect the shape of a word (e.g. Taxi-s vs. Tax-en ‘taxis’, or umlaut), or the avoidance of inflectional elements at all (d-es Barock-Ø vs. d-es Barock-s ‘the-GEN.SG Baroque-GEN.SG’). In the present study, we report the results of a selfpaced reading task, in which we compared reading times of inflected (des Barock-s) vs. non-inflected nouns (des Barock-Ø) within a genitive phrase. Since the non-inflected variants evoke significantly shorter processing times, our findings indicate that ‘morphological schema constancy’ leads to a facilitation of word recognition of peripheral nouns; thus they support the idea that ‘schema constancy’ is a functional principle that plays an important role in determining morphological variation.
personal names in German. From a diachronic point of view, it is argued that combined first and last names shifted from syntactic (i. e. appositional or attributive) towards rather morphological (i. e. compound-like) structures, in which family names can be analysed as grammatical heads. This shift goes along with the increase in importance of family names in the period of Early Modern German. Corpus data (16th to 18th century) provide evidence for this formal restructuring of the name components (e. g. the emergence of single
case marking on the last name: Ludwigs des Langen >> Ludwig Langs).
structure of syllables, their onsets and offsets, consonant clusters, and hiatuses. The analysis confirms the hypothesis that specific phonological patterns are preferred in the naming of men’s deodorants, while other phonological patterns are chosen by naming women’s deodorants. Furthermore the findings establish for the first time a close structural relation between first names and trade names.
Edited Volumes by Tanja Ackermann
Books by Tanja Ackermann
the peripheral nominal domain (mainly proper names, abbreviations, and loan words) and that of more prototypical nouns can be observed. This can be explained by the competition of two motivations, which are weighted differently depending on the nature of the noun in question: the overt expression of morphosyntactic properties vs. ‘morphological schema constancy’, which is more important for peripheral nouns. The notion ‘morphological schema constancy’ refers to word form stability through the avoidance of inflectional elements that strongly affect the shape of a word (e.g. Taxi-s vs. Tax-en ‘taxis’, or umlaut), or the avoidance of inflectional elements at all (d-es Barock-Ø vs. d-es Barock-s ‘the-GEN.SG Baroque-GEN.SG’). In the present study, we report the results of a selfpaced reading task, in which we compared reading times of inflected (des Barock-s) vs. non-inflected nouns (des Barock-Ø) within a genitive phrase. Since the non-inflected variants evoke significantly shorter processing times, our findings indicate that ‘morphological schema constancy’ leads to a facilitation of word recognition of peripheral nouns; thus they support the idea that ‘schema constancy’ is a functional principle that plays an important role in determining morphological variation.
personal names in German. From a diachronic point of view, it is argued that combined first and last names shifted from syntactic (i. e. appositional or attributive) towards rather morphological (i. e. compound-like) structures, in which family names can be analysed as grammatical heads. This shift goes along with the increase in importance of family names in the period of Early Modern German. Corpus data (16th to 18th century) provide evidence for this formal restructuring of the name components (e. g. the emergence of single
case marking on the last name: Ludwigs des Langen >> Ludwig Langs).
structure of syllables, their onsets and offsets, consonant clusters, and hiatuses. The analysis confirms the hypothesis that specific phonological patterns are preferred in the naming of men’s deodorants, while other phonological patterns are chosen by naming women’s deodorants. Furthermore the findings establish for the first time a close structural relation between first names and trade names.