Abstract A foundational goal of linguistics has been to understand why languages look the way they do. A range of possible explanations exist – from domain-specific representations to cognition-external factors like history and grammaticalization – and all of these undoubtedly play some role. But determining exactly how these link with specific features of language remains challenging, and the role of domain-specific mechanisms has been particularly contentious. In this paper, I highlight a growing new approach, which uses artificial language experiments to link individual-level biases to cross-linguistic trends in language structure. Using word and morpheme order as case studies, I will show how a range of different paradigms and learner populations allow us to make progress on this crucial issue in linguistics. I will focus on typological trends in word and morpheme order. For some ordering trends, experimental evidence points to variation across populations, suggesting that the best explanation for these patterns likely has its root in language history and grammaticalization. In other cases, the evidence points to the role of universal but domain-general cognitive biases, like transparency and simplicity. These domain-general biases interact with linguistic representations in important ways. Taken together these studies help adjudicate between alternative explanations for a number of specific ordering patterns and suggest a new sense of domain-specificity in the evolution of language.

Der vorliegende Band bietet eine kulturgeschichtliche und linguistische Untersuchung des Phänomens der Ironie seit der Tradition Platons. Ausgehend von der Definition und den Typologisierungsversuchen von Ironie werden die kulturgeschichtlichen und linguistischen Ansätze zur Ironie-Forschung jeweils in Kapitel 2 und Kapitel 3 vorgestellt. Der Autor analysiert in den folgenden drei Kapiteln die Erkennung von Ironie (Kapitel 4), die Abgrenzung von Ironie zu verwandten Konzepten (z. B. Scherz, Lüge und Metapher, Kapitel 5) sowie die Erfassung von Ironie durch eine linguistische und mehrdimensionale Analyse (Kapitel 6). Eine einseitige Zusammenfassung, gefolgt von Quellen, Literatur, Glossar und Sachregister, rundet das Werk ab. Dadurch gelingt es dem Autor, eine narrative Geschichte der Ironie entlang eines klar strukturierten Leitfadens zu erzählen. Ironie wird oft als ein komplexes Phänomen angesehen, da sie "eine jahrtausendealte Kulturpraxis" darstellt und somit nicht nur "als Kommunikationsmittel oder rhetorische Figur, etwa als Trope […]" dient, sondern auch als "Haltung bzw. Einstellung verstanden und von unterschiedlichen geistes-wie kulturwissenschaftlichen Disziplinen erfasst sowie analysiert" wird (S. 1). Trotz vieler unterschiedlicher Definitionen ist allgemein anerkannt, dass Ironie einen graduellen Gegensatz zwischen Gesagtem und Gemeintem darstellt (vgl. S. 2-4). Auch die Unterscheidung zwischen verbal irony (bezogen auf die Ironie eines Individuums in verschiedenen Kommunikationskontexten) und situational irony (bezogen auf eine ironisch wahrnehmbare Situation) (S. 4-6) ist in der Forschung weitgehend unstrittig. Zudem sollte Ironie als eine übergeordnete Kategorie verschiedener Formen uneigentlichen Sprechens verstanden werden (S. 7). Kapitel 2 behandelt die unterschiedlichen Auffassungen von Ironie im historischen Verlauf. In der griechisch-römischen Verwendungsgeschichte wurde Ironie als "Verstellung" (S. 20) verstanden. Dank Sokrates tritt dem ein positives Verständnis entgegen, da er Ironie als "zentrales Moment […] [des] Erkenntnisprozesses" (S. 9) betrachtet, das dazu dient, "scheinbar gesichertes Wissen zu hinterfragen" (S. 20). Die sich im 17. Jahrhundert herausbildende europäische Moralistik zielte darauf ab, "scheinbar tugendhaftes Verhalten zu hinterfragen und als durch selbstsüchtige Ursachen hervorgerufenes Tun zu entlarven" (S. 12).

Abstract This study investigates the processing and interpretation of the reflexive pronoun sich by Japanese and Korean learners of German as a second language. This is explored through the emergentist reflexivity approach, which hypothesizes that these learners will utilize their first language pragmatic strategies to bind sich, instead of syntactic binding found in German. Employing psycholinguistic methodology, a self-paced reading experiment is undertaken, utilizing antecedent judgements and introspective measures. The results show that instead of using the pertinent German syntax to bind sich, the learners continue to fall under the influence of their first language pragmatics. These results are discussed against the larger picture of reflexive theory, showing how German as a second language can advance our understanding of reflexivity.

Abstract Connectives are a central means for creating a coherent discourse. The relationships between specific connectives, coherence relations and syntactic relations are complex for children to acquire. In this paper, we systematically compare the use of clause-initial connectives in written narratives by German-speaking children in fourth grade (10-year-olds, N = 32) and adults (N = 52). The overall use of connectives, the types of syntactic relations and coherence relations expressed and the connective types used as well as the relationships between syntactic relations, coherence relations and connective types are analysed. The results show that the groups expressed coherence relations with connectives equally often. Additive relations were the most frequent in both groups, but the children expressed temporal relations more often than the adults, who showed a larger diversity in the types of coherence relations. There was no difference in the overall use of subordination and coordination, but the adults expressed temporal relations more frequently with subordination. The children used adverbs to a greater extent than the adults. The connective da ‘then’ played an important role in the children’s expression of temporal relations, whereas the adults used a wider variety of different connectives to express different types of temporal relations. The results suggest that children in the fourth grade have not yet fully acquired an adultlike use of connectives in written narratives.

Abstract Word-final schwa in German inflectional suffixes shows varying realisations in spontaneous speech – from full realisations with varying duration to no realisation. While previous research has identified numerous social, distributional, and grammatical factors influencing the variation of phonetic variables in general, it remains unclear how fine-grained functional differences in different registers specifically affect schwa realisation. In this corpus-based study, we compare schwa realisation in two dialogue registers of German spontaneous speech – free conversation and task-based dialogues – which differ only in their communicative goal and therefore have different functional requirements. We find that schwa is rarely realised, though slightly but significantly more often in free conversation than in task-based dialogue. Other factors also promoting schwa realisation across both situations are less frequent verbs and sequences, and IP-final position.

Abstract While research using behavioural methods has repeatedly shown that generic masculines in German come with a male bias, computational methods only entered this area of research very recently. The present paper shows that some assumptions made by these recent computational studies – treating genericity as an inflectional function and computing a vector for generic usage strongly correlated with the grammatical masculine – are not without issue, and offers the use of semantic instance vectors as a possible solution to these issues. Beyond this methodological improvement, the present paper finds that generic masculines are indeed semantically more similar to specific masculines than to specific feminines – results that are in line with findings by the recent computational studies and the majority of previous behavioural studies.

Abstract This special issue examines the question of how both formal(ist) and functional(ist) accounts or elements of theorizing can contribute to the explanation of (morpho)syntactic variation. Are formal and functional approaches really irreconcilable with each other, as often seems to be taken for granted by their respective advocates? It will be argued instead that they are rather complementary and that both can make a valuable contribution to explaining linguistic variation, in synchronic as well as diachronic respects. The integration of ways of looking at a certain phenomenon or problem from the respective other camp is proven to provide a significant added value and should not be excluded. The volume focuses on several Germanic languages and dialects, more specifically on German, Dutch, and Swedish varieties. It unites different formal and functional perspectives and, not least, it considers also semantic and phonological factors. The models covered include different versions of generative grammar, information-based morphology, construction grammar/construction morphology, natural morphology, and sociolinguistics.

Abstract This paper combines experimental, theoretical and quantitative approaches to syntactic microvariation. The empirical goal is to clarify the situation with respect to wh-doubling (also: wh-copying) in varieties of German and Dutch. With a large-scale survey in the German and Dutch language areas we sought to establish which speakers allow wh-doubling, which speakers allow right-complexity, i.e., configurations in which the lower copy of the wh-dependency is more complex that the higher one, and which speakers allow left-complexity, i.e., the reverse, with a more complex higher copy. We also wanted to know whether there are associations between these properties, to identify groups of speakers and dialects. We found three types of grammars: (i) a grammar that allows both wh-doubling and right- and left-complexity, (ii) a grammar that allows wh-doubling and has a strong preference for right-complexity over left-complexity, and (iii) a grammar that does not allow any wh-doubling configuration. This shows that there is a clear limit to variation in this domain. Grammars with a preference for left-complexity do not exist. We then point out the consequences of these findings for the copy theory of movement, and for analyses that enrich this theory with the option of partial deletion.