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Theory and Implementation of an Analysis of Information Structure in German with a particular focus on the left periphery

Funding Body

DFG within SFB 632 (Project A6)

Principal Investigator

Stefan Müller

Funding Period

until 30.06.2011

The project is to be continued during the third funding period of SFB 632 (1.7.2011–30.6.2015). There is a new project page for the third phase.

Research Team

Felix Bildhauer(Phonology, Syntax, Information Structure)
Stefan Müller(Syntax, Semantics, Information Structure)
Philippa Cook(Syntax, Semantics, Information Structure)

Summary

The aim of this project is to develop an analysis of information-structuring in German. In particular, the following phenomena will be considered:- Fronting of verb particles and parts of idioms and apparent multiple fronting. The analysis is being integrated into an existing Grammar fragment using the framework of Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). A hypothesis which we are seeking to verify is that no functional projections are required for the analysis of information-structure and that the properties of the affected phrases can be directly represented by feature-value bundles. The analysis will be computationally implemented in an HPSG Grammar.

Publications

  • Bildhauer, Felix/ Cook, Philippa. (2010). German Multiple Fronting and Expected Topichood. In Stefan Müller (ed.), Proceedings of the HPSG 2010 Conference, Université Paris Diderot, France. Stanford: CSLI Publications, 68–79.
  • Cook, Philippa/ Ørsnes, Bjarne. (2010). Coherence with Adjectives in German. In Stefan Müller (ed.), Pro­ceed­ings of the HPSG 2010 Conference, Université Paris Diderot, France. Stanford: CSLI Publications, 122–142.
  • Repp, Sophie/ Cook, Philippa. (eds.) (2010). Contrast as an Information-Structural Notion in Grammar. Special issue of Lingua 120(6), 1333–1457.
  • Müller, Stefan. (2009). On Predication. In Stefan Müller (ed.), Proceedings of the HPSG-2009 Conference, University of Göttingen, Germany. Stanford: CSLI Publications, 213–233.
  • Shaer, Benjamin/ Cook, Philippa/ Frey, Werner/Maienborn, Claudia. (eds.) (2009). Dislocated Elements in Discourse. Syntactic, Semantic and Pragmatic Perspectives. New York: Routledge.
  • Shaer, Benjamin/ Cook, Philippa/ Frey, Werner/ Maienborn, Claudia. (2009). Introduction. Dislocation: Concepts. Questions, Goals. In Benjamin Shaer/Philippa Cook/ Werner Frey/ Claudia Maienborn (eds.), 1–27.

Presentations

  • Multiple Fronting vs. VP Fronting in German
    4th Conference on Quantitative Investigations in Theoretical Linguistics, 28-31 March 2011, HU Berlin.
  • Annotating Information Structure: The Case of 'Topic'.
    33. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft (DGfS), 23-25 February 2011, Universität Göttingen.
  • Canonical Topics in Noncanonical Constructions.
    The Sixth International Conference on Construction Grammar (ICCG-6), 3-5 September 2010, Charles University, Prague.
  • German Multiple Fronting and Expected Topichood.
    The 17th International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, 7-10 July 2010. University Paris VII Diderot.
  • VP fronting vs. multiple fronting in German: Random alternation or information structural bias?
    International Conference of SFB 632, 8-10 July 2010, University of Potsdam/Griebnitzsee.
  • Multiple XP fronting in Modern German and in Middle Low German .
    Poster Presentation at the International Conference of SFB 632 together with Svetlana Petrova (Project B4), 8.-10.7.2010, Universität Potsdam/Griebnitzsee.
  • German Fronting Constructions in Context.
    Text Structure: Form, Meaning and Processing, 1-3 July 2010, Universität Göttingen.
  • Comparing German Fronting Constructions in Context.
    GGS 2010, 7-9 May 2010, Freie Universität Berlin.
  • Multiple Fronting Constructions in German.
    DGfS 2010, Workshop on Quirky Vorfeld Phenomena , 24-25 February 2010, Humboldt Universität Berlin.
  • Organization of the Workshop "Quirky Vorfeld Phenomena: Empirically Driven approaches to theoretical challenges"..
    DGfS 2010, 24-26 February 2010, Humboldt Universität Berlin.
  • Multiple Fronting Constructions in German.
    Konstruktionsgrammatik: Neue Perspektiven zur Untersuchung des Deutschen und Englischen, 18-19 February 2010, Universität Kiel.
  • Canonical Topics and Non-Canonical Constructions.
    Invited talk, 11 February 2010, Universität Potsdam.
  • Licensing German Multiple Fronting in Context.
    Texas Linguistic Society 13-15 November 2009, Austin, TX.
  • Canonical Topics and Non-Canonical Constructions.
    11th internal workshop of SFB 632, 6-7 November 2009, Berlin Nikolassee.
  • Mehr zum mehrfachen Vorfeld.
    CoGETI network workshop, 9 October 2009, Universität Tübingen.
  • Motivating Multiple Frontings in German.
    Workshop on Grammar Theory and Grammar Implementation , 18.04.2009, Freie Universität Berlin.