PRECEDENT FUNCTION OF THE IMPERATIVE IN RELIGIOUS DISCOURSE

PRECEDENT FUNCTION OF THE IMPERATIVE IN RELIGIOUS DISCOURSE

Author:  N.A. Golubeva

Affiliation:  Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod

Abstract:  Historically research in the Imperative in Russian and German Linguistics is connected to the names of many prominent linguists. Traditionally there are two approaches to the investigation of the Imperative. First, as a paradigm of verb forms that express an incentive and form the grammar center of the Imperative. Within the second approach, the Imperative is viewed as a unit of a semantic grammatical field. Within this field imperative semantics is expressed not only by means of grammar forms of the Imperative mood but also by alternative grammar means and forms – the passive, the infinitive, the adverb, the noun, and the interjection – that realize different meanings of an incentive and form the periphery of the Imperative.

In the present paper, the author offers an innovative approach to understanding the Imperative, namely, to its reconsidered grammatical meanings, which is caused by the process of grammaticalization. This process preconditions the transformation of meaning of an expression with the Imperative – the precedent (derived, secondary) grammatical meaning that is a cognitive base for its precedent grammatical forms and meanings.

The author puts forward the hypothesis that the Imperative in religious discourse of the German language shows discourse-based specificities which allow categorizing it as a precedent grammar unit. The basic methodological principles for its secondary linguistic status are derivation by form, meaning and function alongside with grammatical polysemy and grammatical synonymy within the alternative linguistic space.

In the paper, we consider precedent grammatical meanings of the Imperative as the derivatives from its primary – direct – meaning; they are investigated from the point of view of functional etymology. The paper describes the process of its transformation into discourse markers, analyzes functional stylistics specificities of the religious discourse, which provides a productive communicative sphere for the Imperative.

Keywords:  the imperative, the vocative, grammatical precedent unit, precedent function, precedent meaning, functional etymology, religious discourse

References:  Blühdorn H., Golubeva N. Konzessivkonnektoren und ihre morphologischen Bestandteile im Deutschen und Russischen // Das Wort. Germanistisches Jahrbuch Russland. 2007. S. 77-100.
Donhauser K. Der Imperativ im Deutschen // Studien zur Syntax und Semantik des deutschen Modussystems. Hamburg: Buske, 1986. S. 44-63.
Erben Jo. Laßt uns feiern! / Wir wollen feiern! // Festschrift für E. Karg-Gasterstädt (= Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 82 [Halle 1961], Sonderband). Halle: Universitätsverlag, 1961. S. 459-481.
Fortein E. Polysemy of the imperative in the Russian language // Questions of linguistics. 2008. Vol. 1. P. 3-24.
Golubeva N.A. Grammar precedent units in the modern German language. Doctoral dissertation. Nizhny Novgorod: State Linguistic University named after N.A. Dobrolyubov, 2010. P. 21-82.
Golubeva N.A., Prokopieva N.N. Precedent function of religious vocative in discourse // Vestnik of Nizhny Novgorod State Linguistics University. 2014. Vol. 25. P. 9-19.
Imo W. Construction Grammar und Gespro-chene-Sprache-Forschung. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 2007. S. 99-114.
Reisigl M. Sekundäre Interjektionen. Eine diskursanalytische Annäherung. Frankfurt a. M., Berlin, N.Y.: Lang, 1999. S. 222-236.
Schönborn Ch. Kardinal. Mein Jesus. Gedanken zum Evangelium. Wien: Molden Verlag, 2002. (= [GzE]).
Sokolova M.Y., Plisov E.V. Milton's religious and aesthetic values in the translation of psalm 114 // Journal of Language and Literature. 2014. Vol. 5 (3). P. 296-300.
Wulf H. Neues evangelisches Gebetbuch. 1. Aufl. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1978.
(= [NeG]).

Pages:  68-75