AbstractsLanguage, Literature & Linguistics

A thesis on the genitive case in Hartmann von Aue's Armer Heinrich

by Henry Herrnleben




Institution: University of Missouri – Columbia
Department:
Year: 1899
Record ID: 1494130
Full text PDF: http://hdl.handle.net/10355/15307


Abstract

The Genitive Case in Mid. High German, as in the other related languages, has been partially traced to adjective origin, denoting by its form the various relations which are now more generally expressed by the derivative adjective. In many instances of course it corresponds to the use of the Genitive in Modern German. Concerning these varied and seemingly complicated uses of the Genitive in Mid. High German, no code of rules can be given that would cover all the examples found. The only way to render an intelligent classification from which the different uses may be studies from their natural and logical function in the sentence in which they occur, is to examine a pure fragment of the language where each individual occurrence of the Genitive may be spoken of separately. For this purpose I selected Hartmann von Aue's "Armer Heinrich," a Mid. High German poem written in the 13th century. It is a truly scholarly production, and its language can safely be considered the best German of the author's time.