Von resultativ zu modal: Das verbale Präfix der- in den südbairischen Varietäten Italiens

The present dissertation concerns the verbal inseparable prefix der-, usually described in the literature on German dialectology as prototypically Bavarian. The derivational morpheme covers a wide range of semantic functions that are prevalently aspectual and often overlap with those of the standard German language, e.g., (d)er-kennen 'recognize', (d/z)er-brechen 'to break something (into pieces)'. Of the many functions of der-, a particular focus is emphasized on its modal semantics, where the ability of the subject to carry out a given activity is expressed. In this case, there is no correspondence with German prefixes, e.g., Austrian (Salzburg) da-mörkn 'be able to remember'. Moreover, der-verbs with the modal function have unique syntactic properties, i.e., the insertion of an expletive object es 'it' with intransitive base verbs, the possibility to combine with other (in-)separable prefixes, the impossibility of being passivized. Crucially, some features have been observed solely or more consistently in the southern Bavarian varieties. There, for instance, the modal der- can combine with other separable and inseparable prefixes, as in Tyrolean (South Tyrol) auf-der-essen 'be able to eat up' or Saurano (Friuli) der-var-gesn 'be able to forget'; at the same time, the prefix is less compatible with the modal verb können 'can' than in other varieties. These properties have not yet been thoroughly investigated or explained, nor has the observed variation. The aim of this thesis is to meet this desideratum. On the one hand, the modal prefix der- south of the Alpine region is investigated by expanding the empirical database. New surveys and collections of dialect data from South Tyrol and the southern Bavarian language islands in northeastern Italy achieve this. In particular, der-verbs have been extracted from two South Tyrolean digital corpora of written and spoken language, DiDi and Kontatto. Moreover, a questionnaire study involving 64 Tyrolean speakers was carried out in the dialect area of Merano. All the South Tyrolean data was finally brought together in the creation of the WoFoDiT- (Word Formation in the Dialect of Tyrol) database. With regard to the language islands, various dictionaries and grammar books were consulted and searched for der-verbs and their meanings. On the other hand, a grammaticalization process is proposed to account for the development of the modal prefix, as well as for the variation in its use. According to this idea, certain aspectual der-verbs, which were predominantly used in modal contexts, gradually adopted the semantic aspect of modality from the context. These verbs finally developed their own modal meaning component, which, in an advanced stage of grammaticalization, suffices to identify a context as modal. Empirical and theoretical evidence in support of this hypothesis is presented. Moreover, a syntactic structure is proposed, that captures the grammaticalization process of the modal prefix der- in terms of three stages of raising in the structure. As a result, two different syntactic realizations for der- are suggested, one in a higher position for the modal prefix and another one in a lower position for the aspectual one. This structural implementation is able to account for the syntactic peculiarities of the modal prefix der- (i.e., insertion of es, combination with inseparable prefixes, impossibility of passivization), as well as the associated variation.