A corpus-based analysis of German '(sich) erinnern'

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the lexical semantics of the German memory verb '(sich) erinnern', which can be roughly translated into English as "remember, remind, recall, recollect". On the basis of qualitative data from the German COSMAS II corpora, readings of '(sich) erinnern' are carved out and discussed. They are represented using the Unified Eventity Representation (UER), which is a decompositional modelling framework for lexical meaning, and which allows the explicit depiction of relationships that are vital components of the verb's lexical semantics. We demonstrate that '(sich) erinnern' is not highly polysemous as its English counterparts might suggest. The results are also a case in point that the question what constitutes and delineates a reading should be investigated more generally.