Figur“, „Grund“ und narrative Kontinuität in der Grammatikalisierung des gotischen Protoartikels

The author investigates the use of proto-article with locative nouns in the Gothic Bible and shows that the choice in Gothic among the anaphoric pronoun sa (proto-article) and Ø is pragmatically/functionally motivated. The locative nouns are mostly inherently definite and unmarked because of being elements of the frame in natural discourse. However, the anaphoric pronoun is used with unexpected locative objects or locative objects in surprising situations. It also marks the change NomLoc as ground > NomLoc as figure and serves as a highlighting device and as an attention-getter. When the topic-continuity is violated, the anaphoric pronoun is used as an invitation addressed to the hearer to mobilize previous knowledge in order to retrieve the referent. The investigation sheds light on the process of language change that led to the shift from demonstrative to article and the overall spread of anaphoric article.