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Document Details : Title: Aspects of the Rise and Fall of the Compound gomman in Tatian Author(s): LIGHTFOOT, D. Journal: Leuvense Bijdragen - Leuven Contributions in Linguistics and Philology Volume: 95 Date: 2006 Pages: 71-86 DOI: 10.2143/LB.95.0.2033182 Abstract : This paper first addresses the development of Old High German gomman 'husband, man' in terms of semantics and morphosyntax. Previoud treatment of the subject has mostly focused on form in terms of and only up to its compounding from the Germanic roots *gumōn 'man, human being/person' and *man(n)- 'man, human being/person'. The processes involved in this type of compounding tend to be characterized mechanically and with little attention to motivation and explanation. This paper elaborates throughout and beyond the dynamic compounding process, also contributing ideas on motivation and explanation. I further draw on recent typological evidence from compounding and reduplication studies, as well as gestalt linguistics, to characterize the development of this construction in the history of German. Evidence presented comes in large part from Tatian, a standard source of Old High German, and the standard dictionaries and handbooks of German complement the data with furhter examples. Certain non-Old High German linguistic examples are also utilized, though most come from within the Germanic family of languages. |
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