The historical development of the types of the first person plural imperative in German - Hardcover

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900. Excerpt: ... INTRODUCTION. The scope of this study is to trace the development of the various locutions that have expressed the first person plural imperative in the German language. Low German and Dutch have also been considered, because of the relationship of the literatures during the late Middle High German period. Gothic has been briefly referred to. The subject has not heretofore been treated in a detailed way by any of the German grammarians. Grimm, Deutsche Gramm. IV. 88, devotes a page to the discussion of the type lasst uns, which, according to him, was introduced into German by Luther. This statement however, is erroneous, as the form occurs more than 150 years earlier in High German, and is quite common during the ftfteenth century. A single instance of the type sollen is also mentioned by him incidentally, as well as the type wollen, which is cited from Alemannic. Erdmann, Deutsche Syntax, 4, makes the statement that in M. H. G. the usual type is gen, whereas the type gen wir according to him is exceptional. This statement also will be found to be incorrect. Paul, M. H. D. Gram., 4. Aufl., 196. 2, 283, briefly mentions the types gen and gen wir. Weinhold, Alem. Gram., .349, 369, mentions the type gen as being distinctively Alemannic, which statement is correct. This is about the sum total of what has been written on this subject. The material on which the present study is based was to a large degree gathered from unedited biblical Mss., which I consulted during the summer of 1898 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. I take pleasure in acknowledging the uniformly kind and courteous treatment accorded to me by the various librarians: I am under special obligations to Direktor von Laubmann, Dr. Riezler and Dr. Keinz in Munich;...