원형이론과 서게르만어 문장 첫 성분들과의 관련성 연구: 독일어, 영어, 네델란드어를 중심으로

Prototype Theory and Sentence-initial Elements in West Germanic (German, English and Dutch)

This paper investigates the relationships between prototype constructions and clause-initial elements in West Germanic (German, English and Dutch). This study aims to show how the degree of semantic intensity in transitivity among three languages is correlated with the typology of subject category. The discussions focus on the semantic variations of subject category and its adjacent categories such as topic in German, English and Dutch. We propose that grammatical relations of languages are coded with different motivations at both ends of the polarity with respect to the subject prominence and transparency principle. By critically evaluating some recent proposals of prototype theory and related translation equivalents regarding West Germanic languages, we demonstrate that the transparency principle encompasses the relative degree of “subject prominence across the languages under investigation. Prima facie evidences for our argument are provided via diachronic explanations in Germanic. The English subject is analyzed as “highly grammaticalized topic , whereas German and Dutch retain an independent “topic position in addition to the notion of subject in which Dutch shows more rigid word order freedom for the topic position compared to German. This explanation turns out to be superior to the recent proposal made by Voorst (1996).