Definite Articles in Low Saxon Dialects

A Case Study in Grammaticalization

by Jeffrey Pheiff

Book cover: Definite Articles in Low Saxon Dialects

Extent: 245 pages

Publisher: Franz Steiner Verlag

Subjects: German Studies, Language & Linguistics

Series: Zeitschrift fur Dialektologie und Linguistik, Beihefte

Series volume number: 191

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(March 2023)

ISBN: 9783515133937

6.65 x 9.45 inches

Price: $90.00

In stock

A prominent characteristic of Low Saxon dialects spoken along the coast of the North Sea, in particular in the Dutch provinces of Groningen and Drenthe, is the absence of definite articles. Despite being quite exceptional for the typology of western European varieties, there have been remarkably few empirical and theoretical contributions. Jeffrey Pheiff attempts to close this research gap through an examination of a large corpus of historical questionnaires studies. The study covers geographic, historical, and functional aspects of this phenomenon, attempting to sketch out a novel hypothesis regarding the grammaticalization of definite articles in Low Saxon dialects.

  • By (author) Jeffrey Pheiff