A02

Negative adjectives in language change

Project Overview

This project examines how negation functions in complex German adjectives. We focus on adjectives like unaufhörlich ‘incessant’, unglaublich ‘unbelievable’, and unvergesslich ‘unforgettable’, which seem semantically transparent, but whose positive bases (a) do not exist, (b) are rare, or (c) have different meanings. We term these BNDAs: Baseless Negative Derived Adjectives. Thus, this project provides a comprehensive analysis of the interaction between morphological structure and semantic licensing across different languages and historical periods.

Research Questions & Theoretical Framework

This project: (1) compiles an exhaustive list of BNDAs and their licensing conditions, (2) traces their development from Old High German to Present-Day German using corpus data, and (3) proposes a formal semantic account. The project argues that the absence or rarity of positive bases and their meaning shifts are systematic, contrary to standard assumptions. Positive bases of BNDAs, the research claims, typically require negation (or a degree modifier such as kaum unglaublich ‘hardly believable’) to be licensed, making them similar in some respects to NPIs (a, b). In other cases (c), operations such as passivation may enable word-internal negation.

Methodologies & Data

By revealing mechanisms of sub-word diachronic change, this research clarifies how negation interacts with other meaning components and lays the groundwork for cross-linguistic comparison. Russian appears to allow un- formation more freely with negative adjectival roots, and English permits un- formation from verbal roots. Similar patterns in other languages suggest that BNDAs may constitute a universal phenomenon.

More about our project

For further information on our project and our publications click here.

Publications

2026

C. Reinert, Weiß

Ohne Negation undenklich: Verbklassen und Adjektiv-morphologie. Eine Untersuchung zur Systematik von negativen Adjektiven ohne positive Basis Proceedings Forthcoming

Verbklassen: Semantik, Grammatik und ihre Interdependenzen. De Gruyter., Forthcoming.

BibTeX

Reinert, Carolin; Weicker, Merle

Wörterbuch zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft (WSK) Book Chapter Forthcoming

In: Chapter Adjektiv, De Gruyter Brill, Forthcoming.

BibTeX

Weiß, H

Unbilibanlicheru stimmo – un-präfigierte Adjektive mit besonderen Eigenschaften. In: Kozianka, Maria, Schuhmann, Roland, und Susanne Zeilfelder: „so manag uuîslîk uuord“. Journal Article

In: Studien zum Spannungsfeld von Synchronie und Diachronie, vol. Festschrift Rosemarie Lühr, iss. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, pp. 245-251, 2026.

BibTeX