Artikel und Aspekt: Die grammatischen Muster von Definitheit (review)

In this fascinating and challenging monograph, Elisabeth Leiss discusses the growth of the definite article in the Germanic languages from the intriguing viewpoint that this development is connected to changes in the aspectual systems of the verb.

Using examples from Old Icelandic, Gothic, and Old High German, L makes a typological distinction between those languages which have hypodetermination and those with hyperdetermination. The former are those languages—such as, she suggests, Old Icelandic—which have retained some elements of the earlier system whereby definiteness can be implied by less discrete features than article usage within the grammar, such as word order and case triggering. In these circumstances the definite article is used only in certain positions. The latter type of article use is best exemplified by languages such as Modern English and (she would claim) Modern High German, where the use of a discrete definer is in essence the only means by which definiteness can be shown grammatically, even when this definiteness is rendered redundant by the context. She connects this development and the development which preceded it (where definiteness, she claims, was iconic) with the gradual diminution of importance which perfection has in verb aspect. She suggests, in fact, that originally, the perfective aspect (and, controversially, in my opinion, the ge- prefix) supplied a form of ‘verbal definiteness’ and the demonstrative a form of ‘nominal definiteness’. Over time, the former was downplayed within the system, leading to the rise of hyperdetermination.

The book is split into eight chapters. Ch. 1 introduces the reader to a number of concepts which are useful in a discussion of both article and aspect. Chs. 2 and 3 discuss these features in Old Icelandic—Ch. 2 concentrating on the definer proper and Ch. 3, the relationship between this and aspect. Chs. 4 and 5 deal with the relationship between article and aspect in Gothic and Old High German respectively. Ch. 6—for me the most rewarding section of the book—discusses the relationship between the two categories from the perspective of linguistic typology, referring in particular to what is to be learned from a comparison with both child language development and the ‘birth’ of pidgins and creoles. Ch. 7 binds the work together, asking the important question: What is definiteness? Ch. 8 acts as a conclusion and summary.

In general the central thesis of the book is convincing. In particular, L’s discussion of distinctions between languages which have a discrete definer in terms of when that form will be used is extremely useful, ably carrying on the work of scholars such as Kramsky. A major problem lies, however, in what she would include within the ambit of discrete definiteness. L appears to make no distinction between those languages that have a definer (whether a pre-modifier or an enclitic) which serves this purpose and this purpose alone and those where a demonstrative pronoun may have article function as well as expressing deixis. This lack of distinction is particularly vital to her discussion of Gothic and Old High German, and it is a pity that she does not touch upon it. It might have been better if she had included English in her discussion since that language has moved from one stage to the other in its history. This worry does not in any way negate her argument, however.