Martin Neef

A declarative approach to conversion into verbs in German

Among the most problematic and controversial phenomena in morphological theory is conversion. Several different analyses have been proposed in the literature which sometimes differ quite fundamentally, depending on the framework chosen. In many such frameworks the analysis of conversion demands the addition of a theoretical device that is not a natural consequence of the respective approach. In this paper, I will present an analysis of conversion within the declarative model of morphology called Word Design (cf. Neef 1996a) which allows to treat conversion as a phenomenon that is predictable from the theoretical assumptions. The analysis is restricted to German data and is not applicable straightforwardly to data from other languages for reasons that will become clear in the course of argumentation.

Graphematics as part of a modular theory of phonographic writing systems

Abstract In writing system research, several scholars assume the existence of a component called “graphematics” (or a similar expression). Depending on the theoretical background, the concepts named in this way differ to quite a large extent, although in all cases graphematics is seen as related to, and at the same time different from, orthography. In this article, I want to discuss some of these different notions. The central aim, then, is to sketch a specific theoretical framework for the analysis of phonographic writing systems that distinguishes between two constituting modules of writing systems that build on each other. They are termed graphematics on the one hand and systematic orthography on the other. The model so far elaborates on data of German in the first place but could well be transferred to the study of other phonographic writing systems. The model is framed in the branch of linguistics that investigates properties of language as a system, as opposed to the branch that delves into the study of the use of such a system.

Form follows function: Interjections and onomatopoetica in comics

Abstract One of the specific features of language in comics is the relatively frequent occurrence of interjections, and onomatopoetica in general. Such words show remarkable variation in their written forms. In our study, we focus on these variations: We created a database of interjections′ spelling variants, based on six comics, and subsequently analysed them. First, we demonstrate that the variant spellings of interjections can be modelled within a formal theory of writing systems: Neefs Recoding Model of Graphematics, published in 2005, that distinguishes between orthography, i.e., the study of the spelling of words, and graphematics, i.e., the study of the relation between written forms and phonological representations. While theoretical models of writing systems often specifically exclude interjections from the scope of their theory, Neefs model includes them and furthermore predicts variation in their spellings. Second, we analyse which additional information can be transmitted through the choice of spelling variants, e.g., instead of , as well as by typographic means, i.e., variations in letter font, shape, size, colour, or orientation. We distinguish five possible functions which might be conveyed by the variant forms, including functions which go beyond the purpose of visualising audible phenomena (=phonetic function): alerting function, play function, relation function, and indexical function.

The Relation of Writing to Spoken Language

This volume grew out of the workshop Writing Language, held at the Max Planck Institute, Nijmegen. The papers represent several lines of research into the intricate relation between writing and spoken language: Theoretical and computational linguists discuss the models that explain why orthographies are the way they are and the constraints that hold between writing and speaking a language; researchers in special education deal with the question of how certain aspects of orthography can be learned; and psycholinguists discuss aspects of language processing affected by variation in orthographies.

Worttrennung am Zeilenende

Abstract Word division at ends of lines is a part of the official orthography of German. In the present text, it is identified as being codified in three different ways: First by a general rule that makes recourse to spoken syllables, second by a set of more specific rules that deal with several different patterns, some of them failing to follow the syllable rule, and third by explicit markings in each individual entry in dictionaries like Duden (2006). Some of these data are inconsistent with the aforesaid rule systems. Based on a theory that is formulated independently of the subject of this article, namely the recoding model of graphematics (Neef 2005a), the different sets of data of word division are reconstructed in a theoretical model. As a result it is argued that word division is guided by properties of letters in the first place, while in a secondary fashion the system is disturbed by a syllabic conception. A pure syllablebased explanation that is advocated for in several other theoretical analyses, however, fails to cover central aspects of the data

Die Genitivflexion von artikellos verwendbaren Eigennamen als syntaktisch konditionierte Allomorphie

Abstract Based on Eisenbergs (2000) insight that German has four genders instead of three, genitive singular inflection turns out to be driven by gender alone. The concept of inflection classes can be dispensed with for this subject. However, as has been noticed, proper names disturb this clear picture because a subset of female proper names seems to vacillate between zero inflection as is typical of female nouns and s-inflection as is typical of masculine and neuter nouns. On closer inspection, it turns out that the s-marker for female proper names differs significantly from the s-marker for masculine and neuter generic nouns. Moreover, non-female proper names may also show zero inflection in the genitive. In order to analyze these data, I distinguish two distinct classes of proper names: members of the first class of proper names are allowed to appear without an article in contexts where members of the other class need one. I call this first class ‘grammatical proper names’. In genitive singular inflection, grammatical proper names are either zero marked or marked by a specific s-marker. The conditioning factor is whether or not the head position of the DP is filled with a word.

Systematische Beschränkungen für Schreibungen im grammatischen Wortschatz des Deutschen: der Konsonant [f]

Theoretical models for the analysis of data from alphabetic writing systems typically assume that the rule apparatus to be formulated generates data from conventional orthography. Moreover, they mostly focus on a rather narrow part of the vocabulary, conceptualized as the “core vocabulary”. However, it is worthwhile to take into account other parts of the vocabulary as well, like assimilated foreign words and indigenous proper names that also follow certain orthographic rules. The modular theory of writing systems (Neef 2005a) gives a suitable frame for this task. This approach has a more complex architecture than competing models in that it distinguishes between two constituting components called “graphematics” and “systematic orthography”, respectively, the latter being distinct from conventional orthography. With the graphematic solution space, the graphematic analysis implicitly provides the spelling potential of phonological units. This potential can typically be used to a certain extent only, depending on the part of the vocabulary the word to be spelled belongs to. This is captured in orthographic constraints. Usually, the theoretical analysis is not able to fully determine the spelling of the word at hand, but only to significantly reduce the graphematically licensed set of spelling options. The aim of this article is to conceive a suitable method of analysis in systematic orthography, starting with the phonological unit [f] for which relevant orthographic constraints for its spelling are formulated.

Writing systems as modular objects: proposals for theory design in grapholinguistics

Abstract This paper gives an outline of the Modular Theory of Writing Systems by answering the question: what are the elements or modules that are necessary for a writing system to work? A writing system is a notational system for a natural language. Based on this characterization, it is obvious that a necessary component of a writing system is a specific language system. What eventually constitutes a writing system in addition to this language system is a device that, put simply, relates units of a language system to units of a script. This component is termed ‘graphematics’ in the present framework and is regarded as a necessary module of a writing system. Above that, another typical component of writing systems, namely ‘systematic orthography’, applies to the ‘graphematic solution space’ and restricts the spelling possibilities of specific words in accordance to their belonging to a specific level of the vocabulary of the language. Supplemented by reflections on the status of scripts as well as of IPA as a writing system, an answer is finally given to the pertinent question how spoken language and written language are related to each other. The answer is that this relation is of a considerably indirect nature.

Satzgliedfunktionen im Deutschen: eine realistische Weiterentwicklung

Abstract The concept of grammatical functions has a long and changeful history. It is used in many different theoretical approaches, not least in the grammar that underlies school instruction. However, several problems and inconsistencies are connected with this concept. These problems can be solved if definitions of the individual grammatical functions are homogeneously grounded in formal criteria instead of making recourse to semantics. In this article, an axiomatic approach of this kind is presented which is couched in terms of the paradigm of Linguistic Realism. The set of definitions given affords a basis for the unambiguous analysis of (German) sentences. At the same time, the traditionally distinct concepts of grammatical functions on the one hand and valency of verbs on the other can be merged into a uniform concept. Crucial in this context is a reevaluation of the grammatical function ‘adverbial’.