Steffen Krogh: Die Wortstellung der Verbalfelder im Ostjiddischen

The article attempts to sketch out the fundamentals of East Yiddish topology as a prelude to regrounding the study of East Yiddish word order. The principal segments of East Yiddish sentence patterns and their underlying regularities are demonstrated, with special attention paid to the relative word order of verbal fields. In accord with Bech (1955), a verbal field is understood as a hierarchical unit consisting of a verbal core and its dependent nonverbal subsyntagmas. Essentially, there are two possible principles for ordering two or more verbal fields in East Yiddish: contiguity and incontiguity. East Yiddish is unique among modern German languages in allowing both constructions. Examples for the study are drawn from selected prose works of three authors, Mendele Mojxer-Sforim (Šolem-Jankev Abramoviâ), Jicxok-Lejbuš Perec und Šolem-Alejxem (Šolem Rabinoviâ).