Abstract
This paper investigates the meaning of German selbst (≈ E N-self) in its intensifying use, and the relation of this selbst to the focus particle selbst (≈ E even). I propose that intensifying selbst denotes type-lifted variants of the identity function on the domain of individuals, and that the observed stress accents must be analysed in terms of by now well-established focus theories. This analysis covers the core range of data correctly, predicting obligatory stress on selbst, sortal restrictions, centrality effects, and the distribution of examples that express some kind of surprise. Moreover, it allows for a treatment of the reanalysis of intensifying selbst into focus particle selbst that stipulates fewer historical accidents than previous accounts.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Adelung, Johann Christoph: 1781/1977, Deutsche Sprachlehre. Reprint of the 1781 edition. Olms, Berlin and Hildesheim.
Asher, Nicholas and Alex Lascarides: 1998, ‘Questions in Dialogue’, Linguistics and Philosophy 21, 237–310.
Baker, Carl Leroy: 1995, ‘Contrast, Discourse Prominence, and Intensification, with Special Reference to Locally Free Reflexives in British English’, Language 71, 63–102.
Büring, Daniel: 1996, The 59th Street Bridge Accent, PhD dissertation, University of Tübingen. Published by Routledge, London.
Eckardt, Regine: 1999, ‘Focus with Nominal Quantifiers’, in P. Bosch and R. van der Sandt (eds.), The Focus Book, pp. 166–186. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Edmondson, Jerold A. and Frans Plank: 1978, ‘Great Expectations: An Intensive Self Analysis’, Linguistics and Philosophy 2, 373–413.
Fox, Danny: 2000, Economy and Semantic Interpretation. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Grimm, Johann and Wilhelm Grimm: 1905, Deutsches Wörterbuch, vol. 10.1. S. Hirzel Verlag, Leipzig.
Herburger, Elena: 1998, In the Event of Focus, PhD dissertation, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
Heine, Bernd, Ulrike Claudi and Friederike Hünnemeyer: 1991, Grammaticalization: A Conceptual Framework. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Heine, Bernd: 1997, Possession: Cognitive Sources, Forces and Grammaticalization. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Hole, Daniel: 1999, (untitled), manuscript on adnominal and adverbal intensifiers, Department of English Language and Literature, FU Berlin.
Hopper, Paul J. and Elizabeth Closs Traugott: 1993, Grammaticalization. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Jacobs, Joachim: 1983, Fokus und Skalen. Zur Syntax und Semantik von Gradpartikeln im Deutschen. Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen.
Kemmer, Suzanne: 1995, ‘Emphatic and Reflexive-Self: Expectations, Viewpoint, and Subjectivity’, in D. Stein and S. Wright (eds.), Subjectivity and Subjectivism, pp. 55–82. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
König, Ekkehart: 1992, The Meaning of Focus Particles: A Comparative Perspective. Routledge, London.
König, Ekkehart and Peter Siemund: 1996, ‘Emphatische Reflexiva und Fokusstruktur: Zur Syntax und Bedeutung von “selbst”’, in I. Rosengren (ed.), Sprache und Pragmatik 40, pp. 1–42. Gleerup, Lund.
König, Ekkehart and Peter Siemund: 2000, ‘Intensifiers as Sources and Targets of Semantic Change’, in K. v. Heusinger and R. Eckardt (eds.), Meaning Change - Meaning Variation (working paper no. 106), pp. 97–110. Fachbereich Sprachwissenschaft, Universität Konstanz.
König, Ekkehart and Elizabeth Closs Traugott: 1988, ‘Pragmatic Strengthening and Semantic Change: The Conventionalizing of Conversational Implicature’, in W. Hüllen and R. Schulze (eds.), Understanding the Lexicon: Meaning, Sense and World Knowledge in Lexical Semantics, pp. 110–124. Niemeyer, Tübingen.
Krifka, Manfred: 1991, ‘A Compositional Semantics for Multiple Focus Constructions’, in J. Jacobs (ed.), Informationsstruktur und Grammatik Linguistische Berichte, Sonderheft 4, 1991/92 pp. 17–53. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen.
Krifka, Manfred: 1993, ‘Focus and Presupposition in Dynamic Interpretation’, Journal of Semantics 10, 269–300.
Krifka, Manfred: 1995, ‘The Semantics and Pragmatics of Polarity Items’, Linguistic Analysis 25, 209–257.
Krifka, Manfred: 1998, ‘Additive Particles under Stress’, in D. Strolovitch and A. Lawson (eds.), SALT 8, pp. 111–128. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
Lang, Jürgen and Ingrid Neumann-Holzschuh: 1999, Reanalyse und Grammatikalisierung in den romanischen Sprachen. Niemeyer, Tübingen.
Lascarides, Alex and Nicholas Asher: 1993, ‘Temporal Interpretation, Discourse Relations and Commonsense Entailment’, Linguistics and Philosophy 16, 437–493.
Moravcsik, Edith: 1972, ‘Some Cross-linguistic Generalizations about Intensifier Constructions’, in CLS 8, pp. 271–277. Chicago Linguistic Society, Chicago.
Opitz, Martin: 1624/1978, Gesammelte Werke: Kritische Ausgabe. Bd. II: Die Werke von 1621 bis 1626, George Schulz-Behrend (ed.). Anton Hiersemann Verlag, Stuttgart.
Primus, Beatrice: 1992, ‘Selbst-Variants of a Scalar Adverb in German’, in J. Jacobs (ed.), Informationsstruktur und Grammatik(Linguistische Berichte, Sonderheft 4, 1991/91), pp. 54–88. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen.
Reis, Marga and Inger Rosengren: 1997, ‘A Modular Approach to the Grammar of Additive Particles’, Journal of Semantics 14, 237–310.
Rooth, Mats: 1985, Association with Focus, PhD dissertation, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Rooth, Mats: 1992a, ‘A Theory of Focus Interpretation’, Natural Language Semantics 1, 75–116.
Rooth, Mats: 1992b, ‘Ellipsis Redundancy and Reduction Redundancy’, in S. Berman and A. Hestvik (eds.), Proceedings of the Stuttgart Ellipsis Workshop, IMS, University of Stuttgart.
Schwarzschild, Roger: 1999, ‘GIVENness, AVOIDF and Other Constraints on the Placement of Accent’, Natural Language Semantics 7(2), 141–177.
Siemund, Peter: 2000, Intensifiers in English and German - A Comparison. Routledge, London.
von Stechow, Arnim: 1989, Focussing and Backgrounding Operators. Working paper no. 6, Fachgruppe Sprachwissenschaft, Universität Konstanz.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Eckardt, R. Reanalysing selbst . Natural Language Semantics 9, 371–412 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014875209883
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014875209883