Comparative constructions across the German minorities of Italy: a semasiological approach

Abstract

Comparative constructions of inequality display a recurrent pattern throughout all Germanic languages, which is partially inherited from the Indo-European mother tongue. This common semasiological format consists in a copulative construction in which the adjective expressing the quality carries a comparative suffix and is accompanied by a particle introducing the standard. For the latter, a morpheme coming from various onomasiological domains is generally recruited. After a general overview of the construction within the Germanic family, the paper will focus on its consistency in the German linguistic islands of Northern Italy, where a remarkable variety is found, which is only partially due to the long-standing contact with Romance languages. Besides an overview of the Bavarian islands of the North-East, particular attention is devoted to the Walser German islands of the North-West, where a number of peculiar patterns are found, which partially reflect structural possibilities attested in earlier stages of the German-speaking territory, but also display unique developments such as for instance the comparative particle ŝchu ‘so’ found in Rimella.

Keywords

• comparative construction
• semasiology
• onomasiology
• language minority
• linguistic island
• language contact