Middle Low German
A group of Continental West Germanic language varieties written in several scribal dialects in c. 1200-1650 in what is now northern Germany and the eastern Netherlands
A new resource
Together with colleagues at Ghent University, I developed a new resource for the study of Middle Low German syntax: the Corpus of Historical Low German (CHLG).
The textual attestation for Middle Low German is very rich, but the syntax has remained relatively understudied. The CHLG aims to facilitate future studies on this topic with a strong empirical basis, and has already yielded several novel insights!
Expressing possession
I collaborated with Alexandra Rehn to conduct a comparative study on the possessor linking construction (dem Mann sein Haus) across Germanic varieties.
Our research drew on insights from Middle Low German corpus data from the CHLG and Alemannic dialect surveys, two language varieties which are often overlooked.
Ditransitives and basic word order
Together with Tianyi Zhao, we looked at the contentious issue of “basic” word order via a case study of object order in Middle Low German ditransitives in the CHLG.
We challenged previous claims regarding the construction’s basic order, and argued for the importance of taking into account interactions between syntax and other non-syntactic dimensions.
Our findings made a strong case for a modular approach to grammar such as LFG, where the separation of position and function opens up rich modelling possibilities for gradually changing word order.
Hannah Booth 