Minimal syntax: Comparison of meaning construction in everyday compounds and compounds in experimental poetry (Paul Celan)

1
Minimal syntax Comparison of meaning
construction in everyday compounds and compounds
in experimental poetry (Paul Celan)
Wolfgang Wildgen (University of Bremen)

• Winter symposium Aarhus (DK)
• 29 -30.1.2007

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Part I

• Linguistic and neuro-cognitive prerequisites

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Minimal syntax
Simple or even minimal languages are a widespread
but not well-defined phenomenon. Roughly
speaking, the early stages of language
acquisition, e.g. at the one- or two-word level,
the foreign language competence of beginners, the
pidgins and jargons used for special situations
(e.g. bilingual encounters), the language of
mentally handicapped persons and aphasics are
only specimens out of a large field of reduced
language usage. Beyond the human species (Homo
sapiens sapiens), the linguistic skills of
primates and the reconstructed language of Homo
neanderthaliensis or even Homo erectus are
possible candidates. The research on the language
of primates trained by humans shows us that their
language capacities have semantic
compositionality, i.e. hey are able to put two
(or more) meanings together to form a new
complex. We call this minimal syntax.
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• Nominal compounds and bare nominal groups as
  candidates for minimal syntax

If we take a compound as a kind of utterance per
se, outside of its possibly complex syntactic and
textual context, its constituents are often
conceptually simple (e.g. stems/radicals).
Although these morphemes may belong to specific
syntactic classes of the language in question,
this feature has only a reduced significance for
the construction of the meaning of the compound,
i.e. the syntactic potential of the morpheme is
dormant in the morphological construction. In the
case of adjective noun and similar
constructions, the way of semantic composition is
comparable to that of compounds.
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Temporal binding as the basic compositional
principle

• The binding process is one of temporal
  synchronization of neural assemblies, which form
  wholes (gestalts) from parts and one of
  desynchronization which distinguishes figure and
  ground. Cf. Engel (2004)
• This type of analysis concerns primarily the
  composition in perception, attentiveness and
  memory, but one may conjecture a parallel process
  for words (at least those related to perceptual
  information) and their composition in syntactic
  constructions.
• Temporal binding of neurons could be the
  equivalent of an object-concept. This is shown in
  slide 5.

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The basic idea of temporal binding
Parts or features of a visual whole are linked by
the synchronic firing of a set of neurons (an
assembly) during a short time interval. In the
example the parts and features of the cat and
those of the woman are bound together by the
internal synchrony of the assemblies 1 and 2 and
they are distinguished by the asynchrony of these
assemblies.
From Engel et alii, 1997 572
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Ambiguity and Binding
Picture a is ambiguous. If it is seen as one face
(and a candle in front of it) the zones (1,2) and
(3,4) (see series d) are bound in the case two
faces looking at each other are seen, the zones
(1,3) und (2,4) are bound. The binding may be
recognized by the synchronic firing rates in the
series d versus e.
From Engel, Fries und Singer, 2001 707
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Top down effects due to expectation and memory
The remembered object produces higher
synchronization at the ?-level (30 to 60 Hz)
At the left a Kanitza-triangle At the right a
non-Kanitza-triangle If the tested person is
instructed to recognize the non-Kanitza-triangle
, the synchronization is higher for this
configuration, although basic gestalt laws would
predict the contrary.
From Hermann, Munk und Engel, 2004349
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What and Where are the basic questions to
be answered in visual perception. Not only must
we recognize what we are looking at, but also we
need to know where it is in order to respond
appropriately. Gazzaniga u.a. (1998 165)
If spatial and dynamic aspects on the pathway
Where are considered, primitive types of
processes are combined with simply bound
predicates and dynamic gestalts corresponding to
what pops up in sentences must be implemented in
the brain.
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Restrictions on compositionality due to temporal
binding

• The different firing rates that can be easily
  discriminated on a background of inherent noise
  and accidental synchronies may set a low limit to
  the number of objects that can be simultaneously
  bound. Teisman (1999 108)
• This restriction is even more dramatic in the
  case of process-schemata, as the results of
  catastrophe theory show.

These already maximally complex processes
exemplify the schemata for exchange (giving) and
instrumental action. They contain as subfields
the schemata of capture, emission, of beginning,
end and stable existence.
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List of archetypes with one to three attractors

• Existing in time and space (one place)
• Coexistence 8n time and space (two place)
• Localistic relations
• entering, leaving, being in (one place),
• changing from A to B (two place)
• changing from A to C via B (three place and
  further)
• Affecting (A affects/influences/touches/catches/.
  .. B) (two place)
• Effecting (A ejects/emits/creates/ B) (two
  place)
• Instrumentality (A affects C with the instrument
  B) (three place)
• Transfer (A gives C to B / B receives C from A)
  (three place)
• Causation (A causes C to affect/effect B) (three
  place)

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Nonce-compounds in German

• One can distinguish three major classes (cf.
  wildgen, 1982c)
• Symmetric (almost) compounds
• Mann- Frau (,,man-woman")
• Dichterkomponist (,,poet-composer")
• Kardinal-Ökonom (,,cardinal-economist")
• Asymmetric compounds (the vast majority). As a
  general tendency one can say generalizing
  (classificatory) constituents rather stand at the
  right, evaluative constituents at the left.
  Historically the first may be become suffixes the
  latter prefixes
• Compounds with constituents containing one or two
  verbal stems
• Arbeits-Begräbnis ("working burial")
• Horch-Angriff ("listening-attack")
• Anzapf-Versuch ("attempt to tap")
• Kontroll-Zwänge ("control restraint")

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Part II

• Nominal compounds in poetic language
• (Paul Celan)

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The poet Paul Celan (his family name was Anschel)
was born in Czernowitz (Bukowina) in 1920. He
went to Paris in 1938 to study medicine but
returned to Czernowitz in 1939. He stayed in
Rumania until 1947 when he fled to Vienna and
1948 came to Paris to study German Linguistics
and Literature. In 1959 he became lecturer
(lecteur) of German at the École Normal
Supérieure (ENS) in Paris. After 1961 he had to
be treated in different psychiatric clinics. He
committed suicide in Paris 1971.
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Compounds in experimental poetry analysis of
some compounds in poems by Paul Celan (1920-1971)
Titles of collections quantity
Mohn und Gedächtnis (1952) 56 poems
Von Schwelle zu Schwelle (1955) 47 "
Sprachgitter (1959) 31 "
Die Niemandsrose (1963) 53 "
Atemwende (1967) 80 "
Fadensonnen (1968) 105 "
Lichtzwang (1970) 81 "
Schneepart (1971) 70 "
Lichtgehöft (1976) 50 "
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Variants of names for collections
The collection at left was finally named
Atemwende, the one at the right Fadensonne.

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Other compounds in the Celan corpus

• Sprachwaage(NR) language-weighing machine
• Sprachtürme (AW) language-towers
• Sprachnebel (LZ) language-mist/fog
• and with Wort (word)
• Worthöhlen (LZ) word-caves
• Wortwaage (NR) word-weighing machine
• Wortspur (AW) word-track/trace
• Wordwand AW) word-wall
• Wortsand (NR) word-sand
• Wortwege (NP) word-lanes
• Wortlitze (SP) word-braid
• Wortschatten (SP) word-shadow

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Nonce-compounds as minimal utterances in titles
of poem books by Paul Celan

• Sprachgitter SG (language-grid/fence)
• Niemandsrose NR (nobody-rose)
• Atemwende AW (breath(ing) / -turn /
  turnabout/reversal)
• Fadensonnen FS (thread/fiber/wire-suns)
• Lichtzwang LZ (light / candle-compulsion/ n
  ecessity/restraint)
• Schneepart SP (snow-part)
• Zeitgehöft ZG (time-group of farm
  buildings)

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Choice of archetypes as fillers of the relational
slot of a nominal compound

• The construction may exploit generalized
  relational schemata (cf. section 3) and thus
  elaborate the basic binding structure (cf.
  section 2)
• If one simply takes the list of semantic
  archetypes with one or two attractors (cf.
  section 3), one obtains the following relational
  readings
• a fence/grid is/coexists with language/linguistic
  phenomena
• a fence/grid becomes language/ a linguistic
  phenomenon
• a fence/grid ends/starts language
• language goes through a fence/grid
• a fence/grid captures language
• a fence/grid generates language
• The compound is compatible with more than one of
  these the delimiting case (enter/start) is
  probably the most significant choice.

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Distribution of heavy/central and
restrictive/peripheral constituents
heavy constituent restrictive constituent
Sprachgitter Sprache (language) Gitter (fence)
Niemandsrose Rose (rose) Niemand (nobody)
Atemwende Atem (breath) Wende (reversal)
Fadensonnen Sonne (sun) Faden (thread)
Lichtzwang Licht Zwang (compulsion)
Scheepart Schnee Part (part)
Zeitgehöft Zeit Gehöft (group of farm-buildings)
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Proliferation of the type of nonce compound from
the titles to the poems

• In the collection Atemwende we find
• Atemseil (breath-rope)
• Atemkristall (breath-crystal)
• Steinatem (stone-breath)
• In the other collections similar compounds based
  on breath show up
• Niemandsrose Atembau (breath-fabric)
  Atemmünze (breath-coin/cash)
• Schneepart Atemnot (shortage of breath)
• The continuous breadth (standing for life/soul)
  is broken down to limited forms or is lacking
  (Atemnot)

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Further principles

• Key words of the author, which are statistically
  prominent (high recurrence) and which sketch the
  semantic frame of the poetry in question
• Simple binary (rarely tertiary) binding patterns,
  which may be predicted using the hierarchy of
  semantic archetypes.
• Some inherent dynamic features of the
  constituents refer to relations/events and
  actions
• relations part (in Schneepart), assembly of
  farm buildings (Gehöft)
• thread (Faden) as opposed to disk (Scheibe)
• negation, nobody (niemand)
• barriers fence (Gitter)
• antagonistic actions reversal (Wende),
  compulsion (Zwang)

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Analysis of two poems by Celan
Aspen Tree, your leaves glance white into the
dark.My mother's hair was never
white. Dandelion, so green is the Ukraine.My
yellow-haired mother did not come home. Rain
cloud, above the well do you hover?My quiet
mother weeps for everyone. Round star, you wind
the golden loop.My mother's heart was ripped by
lead. Oaken door, who lifted you off your
hinges?My gentle mother cannot return.
The poem Aspen Tree (cf. http//www.penwith.co.u
k/artofeurope/poetry.htm).
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• The poem has five strophes and each one begins
  with a minimal utterance, either a compound or a
  noun phrase
• Aspen tree (Espenbaum)
• Dandelion (Löwenzahn lion tooth)
• Rain cloud (Regenwolke)
• Round star (Runder Stern)
• Oaken door (Eichne Tür)
• The first line is always completed by a sentence,
  two of them being questions. The second verse of
  each strophe (stanza) has my mother as
  recurrent topic.

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Todesfuge (fugue of death) Beginning of the
poem 1952

• Black milk of daybreak we drink it at
  nightfallwe drink it at noon in the morning we
  drink it at nightdrink it and drink it

Weiße Milch
Sprachgitter (language grid) Beginning of the
poem 1959
Augenrund zwischen den Stäben.Flimmertier
Lidrudert nach oben,gibt einen Blick frei.
Eye-round
Cilium-animal
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Analysis of the compounds

• In the new poems (after Celans move to Paris),
  the compounds are nonce compounds and in general
  enigmatic
• Todesfuge (Todestango) refers to a piece of
  music (Fuge/Tango/ ) and associates it with
  death. Historically one may reconstruct a
  coexistence (or precedence) in time of music
  playing and killing in the concentration camp
  but in general the semantic relation remains one
  of association.
• Eye-round is like a nonce transformation of
  round eye with an inversion of word order.
• Cilium-animal could be a real animal, but the
  immediately following Lid (lid) shows that the
  compound describes metaphorically a body part
  following the schema body parts are animals.
• In general very basic types of association like
  binding processes are used to give meaning to the
  compounds.

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Some conclusions

• Minimal utterance structure is something
  underlying not only the grammar of every
  speech-event, showing up in conversation, in
  answering questions, in understanding disrupted
  speech, etc. It also constitutes a cognitive
  plateau, on which many semiotic processes stand
  in linguistic, gestured and visual communication.
  The complexities of lexical knowledge and the
  intricate difficulties of syntax are like
  supplementary layers which often hide the basic
  structures ( as the associative cortex hides the
  brain stem). In innovative poetic communication
  this basic plateau shows up very clearly.
• There are two pathways one may chose to elaborate
  this plateau

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• Augment and make the message more complex by
  using a more elaborated lexicon (beyond
  everybodys active lexicon of ca. 10,000 items).
  Introduce new or mostly unknown words.
• Deconstruct ritualized complicated patterns and
  build up new, yet unusual linguistic patterns.
  This technique makes the construction of meaning
  less determined and leaves more choices of
  interpretation to the audience. It is clear that
  in order to guarantee some kind of communication
  between writer and audience, the new systems must
  contain lawful (predictable) patterns, which can
  be learned quickly by an experienced audience.
• Construct a deeper architecture of topics
  organized in clauses, simple and complex
  sentences descriptive, narrative and
  argumentative chains. These techniques are less
  adequate in the case of poetry.
• Add so called poetic super-patterns, such as rime
  and enforced rhythms (meter). If these have no
  effect on the construction of meaning they remain
  decorative.

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Bibliography

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  1987. Process Linguistics. Exploring the
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• Celan, Paul, 2004. Mohn und Gedächtnis.
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