„Himmel welcher Schimpf! (…) Ich ein Schneider?“ – Nicht-finite Prädikationskonstruktionen (NFPK) in Dramen des Barock, der Aufklärung, des Sturm und Drang und der Klassik als Inszenierungsverfahren von Emotionalität

Abstract

Abstract The representation of emotionality in dramas is one of the basic writing skills of authors, because the rhetorical aim of movere, of arousing emotional movement within the audience, can well be served by the verbal and nonverbal presentation of strong emotions of the dramatis personae. One grammatical pattern that is predestined for such a purpose is what has been called „Mad Magazine sentence“ (Lambrecht 1990), which has been (mis)named this way because it gained popularity in this magazine with the utterance “Me? Worry?”. These “non-finite predicative constructions” (Bücker 2012), as they are to be called more scientifically, are exclamative patterns that operate by condensing information to, typically, a pronominal reference act and a short predication act. Bücker (2012) analyzed the formal and functional spectrum of this pattern extensively in modern-day German (mostly based on internet communication but also on spoken German). What is still lacking, though, is a historical analysis: How far back in the history of German can we detect this pattern? Are the usage patterns similar or dissimilar to modern-day German? What special drama-related uses can be observed? This paper is written in the context of the DFG-funded research group Practices of Person Reference (DFG 457855466) and uses as data dramas by Gryphius (Baroque period), Lessing (Enlightenment) and Schiller and Goethe (Sturm und Drang and Classicism).