Edited by Renata Szczepaniak and Johanna Flick
[Studies in Language Variation 23] 2020
► pp. 129–160
The subject of this contribution is clitic forms of preposition and definite article in Middle High German (AD 1050–1350). Given the fact that some of these contractions (e.g. am, im, ins, zum, zur) have, in varying degrees, undergone grammaticalization and have been integrated into the system of definiteness markers in contemporary Standard German (Er fliegt zum Mond vs. *Er fliegt zu dem Mond), it seems likely that the documented instances of such Preposition Definite Article Clitics (PDCs) in MHG constitute an early stage of grammaticalization. This contribution addresses this question by means of a qualitative empirical approach, using the korpus der mittelhochdeutschen grammatik. The results show that the MHG forms anticipate the later stage of the development in modern German.