Jarich Hoekstra

Preposition Stranding and Resumptivity in West Germanic

This paper addresses the phenomenon of preposition stranding in Frisian and some other West Germanic languages, mainly Dutch and German. Like Dutch and German, Frisian allows extraction of a so-called R-pronoun from PP. At first sight, Frisian exhibits extraction of full DPs from PP as well, which is impossible in Dutch and German, and which is, moreover, unexpected from the point of view of most theories on preposition stranding. On closer examination, however, it will appear that the cases of preposition stranding with full DPs in Frisian do not involve extraction from PP, but an (empty) resumptive pronoun strategy. The assumption that Frisian allows ‘preposition stranding by resumptivity’ alongside ‘preposition stranding by movement’ may account for a number of interesting differences between Frisian and Dutch; Dutch does not allow resumptive strategies. German, on the other hand, seems to be able to license resumptive pronouns. Nevertheless, Frisian and German differ considerably with respect to preposition stranding. It will be shown that these differences follow from an independently motivated subparametrization of resumptivity. The complex relationship between resumptivity and preposition stranding in West Germanic, discussed in this paper, may yield further insight into the status of resumptivity in linguistic theory.

Genitive Compounds in Frisian as Lexical Phrases

This article investigates genitive compounds, a special type of NN compound found in West Frisian and some other languages/dialects on the North Sea littoral. Genitive compounds show a number of properties distinguishing them from normal NN compounds, the most striking of which is the obligatory definiteness/specificity of their first element and, as a consequence, of the compound as a whole. These properties can be accounted for if genitive compounds are analyzed as phrases moving towards word status. Historically they derive from the Old Frisian prenominal genitive construction, and it is shown that they still are a kind of prenominal genitive construction today, albeit heavily lexicalized, i.e., subject to lexical principles and containing specifically lexical elements. Since some of the phrasal elements in genitive compounds do not occur in syntax proper and since their definiteness produces a blocking effect on normal NN compounds, they seem to provide evidence for the concept of lexical phrases, potentially productive phrasal patterns in the lexicon.

Pointed and plateau-shaped pitch accents in North Frisian

Abstract Our study presents the initial results of an analysis of North Frisian intonation, based on a spontaneous interview corpus of Fering, the dialect of the island of Föhr off the west coast of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The corpus was recorded more than 50 years ago during fieldwork for language documentation and conservation purposes. We selected a small part of this corpus – interviews of 10 elderly speakers – and conducted multiparametric F0 and duration measurements, focusing on nuclear rising-falling pitch accent patterns. We found strong evidence for a phonological pitch-accent distinction that relies on the difference between a pointed and a plateau-shaped F0 peak. We suggest that the two pitch accents be represented as L+H* and H*+L, and we discuss our findings with regard to possible communicative functions, implications for intonational typology, and the trade-off between F0 range and F0 peak extension in conveying pitch height.

Der Kuss Reloaded: On the Dialectology of ‘Kissing’ in Frisian

Elaborating on Theodor Siebs’ article “Zur vergleichenden Betrachtung volkstumlichen Brauches: der Kuss” (1903), this contribution investigates the dialectology and lexicology of the words for ‘kiss’ and ‘to kiss’ in Frisian, focusing on North Frisian. In the non-standardized Frisian dialects, affective words for ‘kissing’ competed with more neutral ones and eventually replaced them. Thus the common Germanic words for ‘kiss’ and ‘to kiss’ (Old Frisian kos — kessa ) were lost in the modern dialects and a wide variety of alternative forms (among them words for ‘special’ kissing and child words) took their place. In North Frisian, one finds four basic form groups, exemplified by Fering-Oomrang kleeb — kleebe , Heligolandic Paik — paike , Bokingharde Frisian mak — make and Mittelgoesharde Frisian uup — uupi (with the diminutive variant Hallig Frisian aapk — aapke ). The geographical distribution, historical development and etymology of these forms and related ones in East Frisian (Saterlandic) and West Frisian are discussed in some detail. The results of the investigation are presented in the form of an annotated dialect map of ‘kiss’ and ‘to kiss’ in North Frisian.