The Grammaticalization of German Aber: Adversative Conjunction and Modal Particle
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Hussain, Azeez
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Abstract
This study investigates the grammaticalization of the German word aber from a spatial adverb through an adversative conjunction to a modal particle, drawing on corpus evidence from the Referenzkorpus Mittelhochdeutsch (ReM) and the Deutsches Textarchiv (DTA). Using the accounts of grammaticalization given by Sweetser (1988), Abraham's (1991), and others, the study argues that the adversative source semantics of aber are preserved rather than lost during grammaticalization, producing a specific distribution of modal particle instances. This finding bears on the broader theoretical question of whether the properties of the German modal particle word class are best understood as synchronic features or as the convergent developmental outcomes of grammaticalization from diverse lexical sources.
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2026-05
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Text
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Thesis (Masters Degree)