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The Introduction and Extension of the -st Ending in Old High German

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2011

Katerina Somers
Katerina Somers*
Affiliation:
Queen Mary, University of London
*
School of Languages, Linguistics, and Film, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK, [k.somers@qmul.ac.uk]
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Abstract

This article seeks to explain the synchronic variation found in the second person singular inflectional ending (attested both as -s and -st) in the Old High German Evangelienbuch, while at the same time pro-viding a diachronic account of the introduction and extension of the -st ending in German. In order to achieve these goals, in my analysis I rely on the notions of cliticization and formal analogy, arguing that the innovative and original endings correlate with different syntactic environments (V1/V2 versus Vfinal), on the one hand, and different formal shapes (is versus ôs/ês), on the other. After presenting an account of the development of -st in OHG, I draw conclusions regarding the broader question of how clitics become (part of) inflection, a discussion which in turn has implications for the theories scholars use to describe and explain language change, specifically that of grammaticalization.*

Type
ARTICLES
Information
Journal of Germanic Linguistics , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , 06 May 2011 , pp. 141 - 181
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Germanic Linguistics 2011

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