Depictive agreement and the development of a depictive marker in Swiss German dialects

Abstract

This chapter discusses the different morphological markers found on (adjectival) predicative complements and depictive secondary predicates in Swiss German dialects. Swiss German dialects can be subdivided into three groups based on the pattern of adjectival inflection and depictive marking that they show. The first group is one where secondary predicates and predicative complements are unmarked and are therefore not formally distinguished from adverbials, thus comparable to Standard German. The second group is one where both depictives and predicative complements demonstrate obligatory agreement with their controller, comparable to Romance and many Australian languages. The final group is one where depictives, but not predicative complements, take a marker which is restricted to this construction, a cross-linguistically rare phenomenon. This chapter also shows evidence of the emergence of a depictive marker in another dialect area, and develops the historical relation between the two phenomena.