Orð og tunga - 01.06.2014, Page 71

Elspafi and Niehaus: Standardization of a pluriareal language
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split construction
Fig. 4. Areal distribution of split con-
struction in 19th and 20th c. colloquial
German (dark grey area; symbols indi-
cate southernmost documented places of
use in the respective century), adapted
from Negele (2012:121)
double pro construction
Fig. 5. Areal distribution of double pro
constructions in 19th and 20th c. collo-
quial German (light grey area; symbols
indicate northemmost documented
places of use in the respective century),
adapted from Negele (2012:122)
'Double pro constructions' in which the preposition begins with a
consonant, however, are also widespread. Negele (2012:242-44) ar-
gues that such 'double pro constructions' as in example (5), as well
as 'split construction', are standard German, and she gives evidence
from standard German texts which hint at a clear areal distribution.
'Double pro constructions' are employed in the north, 'split construc-
tion' in the south of the German speaking countries. In spite of the
relatively few instances in the Variantengrammatik corpus, Negele's
findings can to a certain extent be corroborated by the results of our
corpus study. Figure 3 shows a preference for the 'split construction'
in the north and west of Germany, whereas the 'double pro construc-
tions' appear mainly in the southern parts of the German language
area. The (small) Kaiserreichkorpus gives no hints as to a regional vari-
ation in nineteenth century printed standard German. Not a single
instance of a discontinuous construction could be found.
Again, it will be safe to assume that discontinuous constructions
have not fallen from heaven into present-day German, nor will the