Schedule 75. StuTS

This presentation is concerned with in-progress work on a special case of spatial deictic expressions in (Bavarian) German. While the use of only one spatial deictic expression (a demonstrative, a prepositional phrase, or an adverb) is typically sufficient to create a deictic reference, it is possible to combine demonstratives and prepositional phrases with an adverbial expression. However, if a prepositional phrase is combined with an adverbial expression, the meaning of the adverbial expression is not quite clear. Thus, an online experiment will try to shed light on the use and meaning of adverbial expressions that occur together with prepositional phrases in (Bavarian) German.

Deictic expressions are characterised by their deictic field: while the meaning of other linguistic items is context-independent, deictic expressions point to specific entities in the speaker’s surroundings and are thus context-bound. In standard German, spatial deictic expressions are typically demonstratives, adverbs, or prepositional phrases, and one deictic expression is sufficient for a deictic reference. Yet, an adverbial element can be added if it provides further information on the location:

(1) Dieses Haus hier gehört Sarah.
‚This house right here belongs to Sarah.’

In (1), the information added is clear: the adverbial expression specifies the distance to the object. However, if an adverbial element is added to prepositional phrases, its meaning is less clear:

(2) Ich fahre nach Leoben hinaus/hinunter/hinauf/hinüber.
‚I’m driving outward/downward/upward/over to Leoben.’

The literature suggests that adverbial expressions provide more fine-grained information on the location or direction pointed to. This seems sensible, but it is unclear which use system is applied. Thus, an online experiment aims to investigate this issue.
In this experiment, the participants read a fairy tale where a princess goes on a journey to find a cure for her father’s decease. She sends letters to her parents about her location, which are read out by a servant who speaks a strong dialect, and the participants should help clarify the servant’s utterances. Each participant answers a total of five questions where the three target items contain one of four adverbial expressions (auffi, obi, ummi, aussi). Additionally, they see a fictional map with (numbered) points and are asked to select the point most likely to be the targeted one by the sentence. For each item, the map slightly varies to test different use systems. After data collection, statistical analyses will be conducted to draw general conclusions on the use of these structures.

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Language of presentation: English
Linguistic subfield(s): semantics, syntax, experiment linguistics, dialectology, sociolinguistics

Info

Day: 2024-05-09
Start time: 14:45
Duration: 00:30
Room: Crab (33.3.088)
Track: Sociolinguistics
Language: en

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