Being itself: On German selbst in synthetic compounds

German synthetic compounds containing selbst have traditionally been treated as reflexive in nature. However, this view cannot cope on the one hand with the basic value of selbst as focus particle and not as pronoun and on the other with the non-reflexive value of many compounds whose meaning range...

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Main Authors: Livio Gaeta, Marco Angster
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main 2023-10-01
Series:Zeitschrift für Wortbildung
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author Livio Gaeta
Marco Angster
author_facet Livio Gaeta
Marco Angster
author_sort Livio Gaeta
collection DOAJ
description German synthetic compounds containing selbst have traditionally been treated as reflexive in nature. However, this view cannot cope on the one hand with the basic value of selbst as focus particle and not as pronoun and on the other with the non-reflexive value of many compounds whose meaning range from purely intensification of the understood agent of the activity as in Selbstbau ‘do-it yourself-construction’ to anti-causativity like Selbstentzündung ‘self-ignition’. In this paper, we will consider a different option, namely to interpret the focus particle selbst as a flag for signaling contrastive coreference. This option can be concretely operationalized in constructional terms as a case of constructional idiom.
format Article
id doaj-art-d517acff248b415285a38795efa70027
institution OA Journals
issn 2367-3877
language deu
publishDate 2023-10-01
publisher Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
record_format Article
series Zeitschrift für Wortbildung
spelling doaj-art-d517acff248b415285a38795efa700272025-08-20T02:06:35ZdeuUniversitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am MainZeitschrift für Wortbildung2367-38772023-10-017289120https://doi.org/10.21248/zwjw.2023.2.106Being itself: On German selbst in synthetic compoundsLivio Gaeta0Marco Angster1University of TurinUniversity of ZadarGerman synthetic compounds containing selbst have traditionally been treated as reflexive in nature. However, this view cannot cope on the one hand with the basic value of selbst as focus particle and not as pronoun and on the other with the non-reflexive value of many compounds whose meaning range from purely intensification of the understood agent of the activity as in Selbstbau ‘do-it yourself-construction’ to anti-causativity like Selbstentzündung ‘self-ignition’. In this paper, we will consider a different option, namely to interpret the focus particle selbst as a flag for signaling contrastive coreference. This option can be concretely operationalized in constructional terms as a case of constructional idiom.compoundsreflexivityintensificationconstructional idiom
spellingShingle Livio Gaeta
Marco Angster
Being itself: On German selbst in synthetic compounds
Zeitschrift für Wortbildung
compounds
reflexivity
intensification
constructional idiom
title Being itself: On German selbst in synthetic compounds
title_full Being itself: On German selbst in synthetic compounds
title_fullStr Being itself: On German selbst in synthetic compounds
title_full_unstemmed Being itself: On German selbst in synthetic compounds
title_short Being itself: On German selbst in synthetic compounds
title_sort being itself on german selbst in synthetic compounds
topic compounds
reflexivity
intensification
constructional idiom
work_keys_str_mv AT liviogaeta beingitselfongermanselbstinsyntheticcompounds
AT marcoangster beingitselfongermanselbstinsyntheticcompounds