Ätzend! Zur Geschichte der Verben „ätzen“, „atzen“, „äsen“

ALBRECHT GREULE University of Regensburg Research areas: text grammar, theology and the language of the church hymn, onomastics, historical syntax. DOI: doi.org/10.35321/all84-01 BITING! ON THE HISTORY OF THE VERBS ÄTZEN, ATZEN, ÄSEN Biting! On the History of the Verbs ätzen, atzen, äsen ANNOTATION In German youth and colloquial language, ätzend is used disparagingly for something that is boring, repulsive, and unpleasant. From an etymological perspective, however, Ätzen is the causative of essen; this contribution seeks to trace the development that led from the essen causative found in the Old Germanic languages, Germanic *atjan, to the New High German verbs ätzen, atzen and äsen, which are still recorded in the German Dictionary of 2007. The hypothesis is taken into account that verb change cannot be adequately understood without describing the morphological and semantic environment of each verb. KEYWORDS: semantic change, etymology, historical syntax, causativity, verb–actant constellation. ANNOTATION In German youth communication and colloquial language, ätzend is used as a pejorative for something that is boring, disgusting and unpleasant. However, etymologically speaking, Ätzen is the causative of essen. This article attempts to trace the development that led from the essen causative, Germanic *atjan, present in the Old Germanic languages, to the New High German verbs ätzen, atzen and äsen, which are still listed in the 2007 German Dictionary (DWB). The hypothesis that verb change cannot be grasped without describing the morphological and semantic environment of each verb is observed. Straipsniai / Articles 11 ALBRECHT GREULE KEYWORDS: change of meaning, etymology, historical syntax, causativity, verb-actant constellation. VERB–ACTANT CONSTELLATIONS The following analyses are based on the hypothesis that the semantic development of a verb cannot be adequately described without taking into account the verb–actant constellation (VAK) required by the verb as a valency-bearing element. The VAK consists of two interrelated levels, the semantic and the morphological. At the actants of the verb, the semantic level is described by “case roles” or “deep cases,” to which morphological expression structures (partly inflected word groups) are assigned. The semantic description of the actants is given in a deep-case framework (TKR), and the morphological description in a sentence construction plan (SBP) (cf. Greule, Korhonen 2021: 34). Example: The (three-place) actant constellation of the MHG verb etzen ‘to provide with food (‘activity’)’ is: [semantically] Agent (‘human’) → [morphologically] Nn // [semantically] Addressee (‘human/animal’) → [morphologically] Na // [semantically] Affected Object (‘food’) → [morphologically] pNmit// In abbreviated form: (SBP/TKR) Nn/Agent (human) // Na/Addressee (human/animal) // pNmit/Affected Object (food). (The abbreviations mean: Na = noun/nominal group in the nominative, Na = noun/nominal group in the accusative, pN = prepositional group, indexed with the governing preposition; furthermore Ng = noun/nominal group in the genitive, Nd = noun/nominal group in the dative.) From a construction-grammatical perspective, one could speak of a construction “caused intake of food” with the roles Agent x causes Agent y to ‘take in’ the food z, into which, in the course of linguistic history, the verbs ätzen, atzen, äsen could be replaced by the verbs nähren, füttern, weiden, etc. The analyses aim to prepare the original essen causatives MHG ätzen, atzen, äsen for inclusion in the Historical Syntactic Verb Dictionary (HSVW) (cf. Greule, Korhonen 2021: 154). In doing so, we rely on the digitized versions of the historical German dictionaries: AHDWB, MHDWB, FNH DWB, GoetheWB, and on the printed edition of the revised German Dictionary of the Brothers Grimm (DWBneu). The individual meanings (sememes) assigned there to the historical equivalents of NHG ätzen, atzen and äsen are, on the basis of the textual attestations 12 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXIV Ätzend! Zur Geschichte der Verben ätzen, atzen, äsen interpreted with regard to their verb–actant constellation, language stage by language stage. From the summation of the sememes and their VAK, the semantic history of the three originally (etymologically) synonymous verbs is reconstructed above all through diachronic comparison. 1. THE ORIGINAL ESSEN-CAUSATIVE VERBS The causative formations once existing alongside the German verb essen now play at most a minor role in communication in the German language. The revised German Dictionary (DWBneu), however, assigns the verbs äsen, atzen and ätzen a separate article each. The three verbs are also recorded in the German Universal Dictionary of the Duden editorial office. The dictionary entries make clear that the three verbs, with the basic meaning ‘x causes y to eat (of) z’ (more simply: ‘x feeds y with z’), have been attested since Old High German and have equivalents in the other Germanic languages. Despite the syntactically clear three-place structure and the morphologically still recognizable structure through reconstruction—they are weak jan verbs of the non-causative verb, derived from the o-grade, from which the preterite is formed (essen-aß), cf. trinken/trank – tränken ‘to make/let drink’—the presentation of the verb history for the Historical Syntactic Verb Dictionary, i.e. taking into account the semantic and morphological environment required by the verbs as valency-bearing elements, poses considerable difficulties. These lie both in the area of meanings that diverged in the course of linguistic history and in the sound developments that began in the pre-Old High German period. 2. ETYMOLOGY The causative of the Germanic strong verb *et-a- ‘to eat’ is derived from the o-grade of the verb stem (Germanic *at-) with the suffix -ja. This “correct” formation is attested in Gothic (fra-)atjan ‘to distribute for eating’, Old Norse etja ‘to feed’, Old English ettian ‘to graze off’, Old Frisian etta ‘to graze’, and has a morphological parallel in the causative Germanic *sat-ja- ‘to set’, derived from the stem of the strong verb Germanic *set- ‘to sit’. The complication with the essen causative arises because another verb to the stem Germanic *et- ‘to eat’, also with the suffix -ja, was derived from the Straipsniai / Articles 13 ALBRECHT GREULE lengthened grade Germanic ēt as Germanic *ēt-ja. This formation is not attested in Gothic; in that language, only the nouns uz-eta ‘manger’ and af-etja ‘eater’ exist from the lengthened grade, as well as, in other Old Germanic languages, the continuation of Germanic *ēt-a-m ‘food, fodder’ (Seebold 1979: 180), so that, with Jörg Riecke, one may suspect that Germanic *ēt-ja derives from this nominal stem and was originally not causative (Riecke 1996: 651). Germanic *ēt-ja may have been a (two-place) ornative and had the meaning ‘x provides y with food/fodder’ (= ‘x feeds y’). (Cf. EWAhd II: col. 1188f. for the entire complex.) Several sound changes in pre-Old High German are responsible for the formation of the three causative verbs of essen, producing three form types: In Type 1, Germanic *at-ja-, the stem vowel /a/ was raised to /e/ before /j/ (primary umlaut), and /-t-/ was geminated > pre-OHG *etija-. In Type 2, Germanic *ēt-ja-, Proto-Germanic /ē/ was lowered to /ā/ except in Gothic: *atīja-. Because gemination of /-t-/ after a long syllable vowel was optional, two subtypes could arise in OHG, namely one without t-gemination (2a) and one with t-gemination (2b): Type 2a) pre-OHG *atīja- > OHG āzen. The expected umlaut of /ā/ and the vowel length were not marked in writing in Old High German, but only in Middle High German as æʒen, êʒen, ēʒen (preterite âʒte?), NHG äsen [äː] (= secondary umlaut). The ungeminated pre-OHG /-t-/ became (through the Second Sound Shift) the simple voiceless fricative /-s-/, OHG <-z->, MHG <-ʒ->. Type 2b) pre-OHG *atīja- > OHG *ätzen/āzen. The expected umlaut of /ā/ and the vowel length were not marked in writing in Old High German, but only in “Middle High German” as *ætzen, *ētzen. The geminate /-tt-/ became (through the Second Sound Shift) the affricate /-ts-/. The etymology of NHG atzen is unclear. It may be a variant form originating in the (Bavarian) dialect (in the Bavarian dialect, the umlaut of /ā/, MHG <æ>, was lowered to /aː/ from the twelfth century onward), or (MHG) ätzen may have arisen through system leveling from the preterite *ätz-te. Ahd. essen-causatives do not include ahd. azon ‘to feast’ (thus Seebold 1970: 180) or ahd. âzôn ‘to seek food, fodder for oneself’ (AHDWB I: 11, Sp. 766), nhd. aasen (DUW: regional ‘to deal with something extravagantly, not economically; to waste something’ (cf. DWBneu 1st vol., Sp. 15). It is presumably a denominal formation from ahd. āza (azza) ‘food, fodder’ (cf. EWAhd I: Sp. 409–410). 14 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXIV Ätzend! Zur Geschichte der Verben ätzen, atzen, äsen 3. SEMANTICS AND SYNTAX: VERB–ACTANT CONSTELLATIONS DIACHRONICALLY Old High German Type 1, Germanic *at-ja-: OHG ezzen with [–ts–], MHG etzen (preterite atzte, with reverse umlaut), NHG ätzen (originally *etzen) OHG ezzen weak verb (AHDWB III: cols. 476f.; Riecke 1996: 638) Sememe 1 ‘to graze off, to let graze off’. Attestation without syntactic context. Sememe 2 ‘to etch, to clean with a corrosive liquid’. Attestation giezzit uurtin (passive) Type 2a, pre-OHG *ātja- > OHG āzen with [–s–], MHG æzen, ȇzen/ēsen, NHG äsen (older äßen) and Type 2b) pre-OHG *āttja- > OHG (gi-)āzen with [–ts–] (AHDWB I: cols. 764f.: with affricate; Schützeichel 2006: āz(z)en ‘to feed, to provide food’; Riecke 1996: 650f.: āzen ‘to give someone food, to feed someone’), MHG *ætzen, *etzen. The OHG spellings with <–z–> or <–zz–> do not permit a reliable assignment to affricate or fricative. OHG āzen (AHDWB I: 764f.) Sememe ‘to feed someone, nourish someone, give someone food, feed an animal’. SBP/TKR: NGn/Agent (human/God) – Nga/Addressee (humans/animals) – [pNₘᵢₜ/Affected Obj. (food)] – [pNₐᵦₐ/Instrument (“with the hand”)] Attestations: (1) daz ih hungarege ni azda. (2) [du] rihtost... mir tische. daz ih keazzet wurde mit starcherun fluoro danne diu milch si (passive). (3) toh tie... leuuen an in chetenna tragen. unde doh man sie azze aba hende Nb 138,1 [149,4]. Middle High German etzen, ezzen [with primary umlaut and affricate < pre-OHG *attja–], preterite azte (= Type 1) Sememe 1 ‘to provide a person/animal with food, feed, nourish, feed’ (transitive): (factitive–) causative “to make eat”. SBP/TKR: NGn/Agent (human) – Nga/Addressee (human/animal) – [pNₘᵢₜ/Affected Object (food)] – [pNₘᵢₜ/Instr (hand)] Examples: ir sult [...] den hungerigen etzen PrBerth 1:280,36; mich durfte, ir tran­<em>tent</em> mich, mich hungerte, ir azetent mich Lucid 141,4; di hungerigen er [der gute Christ] ezet / di durstigen er trenket Glaub 1691; si [Maria] tranc­te in [Christus] unde azte in mit deme rainen spunne ire hailigen miliche TrudHL Straipsniai / Articles 15 ALBRECHT GREULE 80,16; siche lûte pflac si to feed and to water with their hands HvFritzIHI 243,1; that you [your lord] his cattle [...] at home feed and water PrBerth 1:268,17; with honey he [the devil] [the sinner] feeds / and afterward gives him drink with bile HeslApk 13350. Sememe 2 ‘to let (one’s) livestock graze’ (permissive–) causative ‘to let eat’ SBP/TKR: Nɢn/Agent (human) – pNuf / Place (pasture) Attestations: daz pæide lôte vf ir paider wæide solen treiben vnde ezzen alse vor sechzich jaren UrkCorp (WMU) 1690,3; alles daz reht, daz ich hatte vf ir mat-tan ze ezzene ebd. 1801,26. 649,16. Sememe 3 ‘to harm someone by letting livestock graze without authorization’ SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) – [Na/Patient (human)] – [pNan/Place] Attestations: sunder hove, die uns weder treten noch etzen süllen SchweizId 1,628; swer den andern anspricht umb etzen, tretten, ubersniden, ubernemen UrkWittelsb 1,148 (a. 1255); item si quis alium impulsa uerit de dampnis, que dicuntur etzen, trettin, ubersniden, ubereren ebd. 1,89 (a. 1244]); tut ieman dem andern schaden pey tag oder pei nacht mit etzen an seinen chorn, an seinem wizmat, an seinen garten StrMünch 327,18. etzen, MHG *êtzen, (Bavarian?) ȃtzen [with long secondary umlaut, affricate < pre-OHG *āttja–] The variant ȃtzen may have arisen through system leveling from the preterite *ātz-te or may originate in Bavarian, where the secondary umlaut MHG <æ> was lowered to /a:/ from the twelfth century onward. Sememe 1 ‘to provide a person/animal with food, feed, nourish, feed’ (transitive): (factitive–) causative “to make eat”. SBP/TKR: NGn/Agent (God, human) – Nga/Addressee (human, animal) – [pNmit/ von/Affected Object (food, fodder)] – [pNmit / uf /Instrument (with/on the hand)] Attestations: er [God] æcet siv [God’s enemies] uon fezte chorens unde uon steine honges sat er siv PsM 80,17; Daniel 3590; und ätzt in [the dolphin] zuo letzt mit seiner hant BdN 236,17; [the rooster] atzt er dick uf siner hant Reiher 35. in a transferred sense: dar nach so trencht man in und aezet in mit der ler des hiligen ew ein-gelium PrOberalt 33,19. Sememe 2 ‘to provide something (a fishing hook) with bait’ SBP/TKR: NGn/Agent (human) – Nga/Affected Object (hook) – pNmit/Instrument Attestations: an earthworm, with which one baits the hooks BdN 310,5, in the baited hooks BdN 215,13. Sememe 3 ‘to give someone something to eat, to refresh someone with something’ SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) – Nd/Addressee (human) – Na/Affected Object (scent) 16 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXIV Ätzend! Zur Geschichte der Verben ätzen, atzen, äsen Attestation (figurative): the holy fragrance that you spread to us at all times acist LambGeb A23. aezen, MHG êzen/êsen, Bavarian? *âzen/âsen [with long secondary umlaut, fricative < pre-OHG *atja-] (=Type 2a) Sememe 1 ‘to provide a person/animal with food, feed, nourish, feed’ SBP/TKR: NGᵣn/Agent (human, eagle) – Nga/Addressee (human, eagle) – [pNvon/Affected Object (fodder)] Attestations: dc du den hungergen ésest PrSchw 2,55; these hands that ezden you in misery MarlbRh 49,34; – with Reflexive pronoun: [of the eagle’s] foot he [...] / to keep a lion at that hour, / from which his rich mouth / according to his desire eset itself and is refreshed Minneb 3005. – Sememe 2 ‘to graze something off’, here figuratively ‘to crawl’ (literally ‘to graze off the slope’) SBP/TKR: NGᵣn/Agent (human) – Nga/Affected Object (slope) Attestation: over sand and over meadow / they had to [Jonathan and his men] graze the slopes asin / climbing [up the rock] on all fours RyEWchr 23336. Early New High German The FNH DWB posits one lemma each for the type with an affricate and the type with a fricative: ätzen, etzen, more rarely atzen Sememe 1 ‘to give someone food, to feed someone’; (specifically: ‘to provide for (prisoners)’; in legal formulas of prohibition: ‘to give someone sustenance, offer someone shelter’; ‘to feed (animals)’ SBP/TKR: NGᵣn/Agent (human) – Nga/Addressee (human/animal) – [pNmit/Affected Object (food)] – [pNmit/Instr (hand)] Attestation: what hens one feeds with half-cooked barley, which lays many eggs K. v. Megenberg, B.d.Nat.196,15; he (bird) feeds itself with its foot like a human with the hand K. v. Megenberg, B.d.N.222,9. Sememe 2 ‘to feed something (e.g. oats)’ SBP/TKR: NGᵣn/Agent (human) – Nga/Affected Object (food) Attestation: but they fed oats, which the community was to pay for Weist. Schriesheim 184, 10. Sememe 3 ‘to drive (livestock) to forest pasture’ SBP/TKR: NGᵣn/Agent (human) – NGᵃ/Affected Object (livestock) Attestation:? Sememe 4: ‘to graze (livestock)’ SBP/TKR: NGᵣn/Agent (human) – NGᵃ/Patient (livestock) Attestation:? Sememe 5: ‘to have the vegetation of an area grazed off’ SBP/TKR: NGᵣn/Agent (human) Straipsniai / Articles 17 ALBRECHT GREULE Attestation: but that someone grazes [on the common] wants to, is permitted Weistum Schriesheim 121,5 Sememe 6: ‘to harm someone by allowing livestock to graze’ (cf. DWBneu atzen4: ‘to harm someone by unauthorized grazing of his fodder areas’ SBP/TKR: NGn/Agent (human) – NGa/Patient (human) Evidence: 1.h.14.jh. sunder hove, die uns weder treten noch e(tzen) süllen Swiss. id. 1,628 (DWBneu) Sememe 7: ‘to provide a trapping device with bait/carrion’ (cf. DWBneu atzen3: ‘to lure animals with food, bait them; to provide something with bait, lure food’, first in 1349/50 Konrad v. Megenberg) SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) – Na/Patient (trapping device) – pNmit/Affected Object (bait) Attestation: with which one baits the hooks Konrad v. Megenberg, B.d.Nat 250, 13 Sememe 8: ‘to behave hostilely toward someone; to harbor feelings of revenge, plunder’ (cf. DWBneu atzen4: ‘to harm someone, (in war) to plunder, rob’ SBP/TKR: NGn/Agent (human) Attestation: [they] lay in the bishop’s land by force and plundered and plundered six days Chron. Augs. 2.21,26. Sememe 9 (according to DWBneu ätzen1) ‘to let something be eaten away by chemical agents acting on the surface, by a caustic substance (acid, lye), to pickle, clean’ SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) – Na/Affected Object Attestation: (1497) (the ointment) was widely used..to etch and clean..all impure wounds Brunschwig, chirurgia 237b Sememe 10 (according to DWBneu ätzen2): ‘to produce something through the action of chemical agents, bring forth (artistically shaping), engrave it into a surface’ SBP/TKR: NGn/Agent (human) – NGa/Effected Object (engraving) – pNin/Place (surface) Evidence: (1558) das glaß, darein der heilig David geetzet war Lindener, katzipori 133 LV. ässen (from MHG aȝen = Type 2a) Sememe 1 ‘to give someone food, feed someone; feed animals’ (synonymous with Sememe 1 of ätzen/etzen/atzen) SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) – Na/Addressee (human/animal) – [pNmit/Affected Object (food)] Attestation (according to DWBneu äsen1) 1388 that...of the year no more than six pigs are to be fed Württemberg Hist. Sources 8,62. 18 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXIV Ätzend! Zur Geschichte der Verben ätzen, atzen, äsen (The finite verb forms cited in the FNHDWB in the examples with <z> may also belong to etch, e.g. do mite ezt her die gerualkin v. Tscharner, Md. Marco Polo 21,7.) Sememe 2 ‘to lure (animals) with bait’ SBP/TKR: NGn/Agent (human) – NGa/Patient (animal) Attestation: if you have a thoroughly bewitched fox [...] then bait it in the woods by a tree Ermisch et al., Haush. Vorw.225, 15. Sememe 3 (according to DWBneu äsen1) ‘to take in food’ (hunter’s language), (according to DWBneu äsen2) reflexive ‘(of herbivorous animals, especially in hunter’s language of game) to eat, consume, graze off something’ SBP/TKR: NGn/Agent (animal) Attestation: she (= pregnant hind) may well graze and feed on the flax lehre v. d. zeichnen d. hirsches 133 L. Attestation: 1682 the hunter was to...graze in the seed fields Hohberg georgica (1687)2,63b. Older New High German (GoetheWB) ätzen Sememe 1 ‘to feed (a bird)’ SBP/TKR: NGn/Agent (human) – NGakk/Addressee (animal) – [pNaus/Instr] Attestation: There was a boy with a tender dove, /...Etched from his mouth Sememe 2 ‘for the harmful effect of lyes and acids, poisons’ only present participle! Sememe 3 ‘in the art of engraving, for the etching process’ SBP/TKR: NGn/Agent (human) – NGa/Affected Object (material) Attestation: I etched the plate äßen, sich Sememe: (hunter’s language) for the feeding of game: ‘to nourish oneself’ SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (game animals) – pNan/Place Attestation: Horned cattle / feeds itself scattered across the overhanging rock. New High German (DUW, DWBneu) äsen, sich Sememe (hunter’s language) ‘(of game, excluding wild boar and predatory game) to take in food’ SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent – pN/Place Attestation: <1883> one could...see a roe deer or a stag come out and feed (DWBneu, vol. 3, col. 338) ätzen Straipsniai / Articles 19 ALBRECHT GREULE Sememe 1 ‘to treat something with acid, lye, or the like in order to dissolve or remove it’ SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) – Na/Affected Object – pNmit/Instrument (acid, lye, or the like) Attestation: etch wound edges with silver nitrate (DUW) Sememe 2 ‘(of acids, lyes, or the like) to act destructively, corrosively on something’ SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (acids, lyes, or the like) – Na/Affected Object Attestation: predominantly present participle ätzend. Sememe 3 ‘to produce something on the surface of a material by using acid, lye, or the like, to etch in; to produce something through the action of chemical agents, bring forth, (artistically shaping) engrave it into a surface, then generally to cut or scratch something in’ (DWBneu, vol. 3, col. 338) SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) – Effected Object (image) – pNauf,in/Place (material surface) Attestation: 1851 that he etched letters onto a copperplate (DWBneu), etch an image onto the copperplate (DUW). ätzen Sememe (hunter’s language) ‘to provide nestlings with food, nourishment’ (originally Bavarian instead of ätzen—secondary umlaut?) SBP/TPK: Nn/Agent (animal) – Na/Addressee (young animal) – pNmit/Instr. Attestation: <1853> blind...young ones, which it (the female hedgehog)...carefully feeds with snails and earthworms (DWBneu, vol. 3, col. 391 4. SUMMARY OF THE MEANINGS (GIVEN IN THE DICTIONARIES) OF 12 SEMEMES (A–L) To explain the semantic and syntactic development of the pre-OHG verbs *atjaund *ātja–/*āttja–, the etymological causatives of the verb Germanic *eta- ‘to eat’, up to the NHG verbs ätzen, äsen, atzen, the meanings given in the dictionaries are summarized into 12 sememes. Sememe A ‘to provide a human/animal with food, feed, nourish, feed’ OHG ätzen: SBP/TKR: NGn/Agent (human/God) – NGa/Addressee (humans/animals) – [pNmit/Affected Object (food)] – [pNaba/Instrument (“with the hand”)] 20 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXIV Ätzend! Zur Geschichte der Verben ätzen, atzen, äsen MHG etzen, ezzen: SBP/TKR: NGn/Agent (human) – nga/Addressee (human/animal) – [pNmit/Affected Object (food)] – [pNmit/Instr (hand)] MHG ätzen: SBP/TKR: NGn/Agent (God, human) – nga/Addressee (human, animal) – [pNmit/von/Affected Object (food, fodder)] – [pNmit/uf/Instr (with/on the hand)] MHG æßen: SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human, eagle) – Na/Addressee (human, eagle) – [pNvon/Affected Object (fodder)] Early New High German ätzen, etzen, atzen: SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) – Na/Addressee (human/animal) – [pNmit/Affected Object (food)] – [pNmit/Instr (hand)] Early New High German ässen: SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) – Na/Addressee (human/animal) – [pNmit/Affected Object (food)] Older NHG: ätzen ‘to feed (a bird)’: SBP/TKR: NGn/Agent (human) – NGakk/Addressee (animal) – [pNaus/Instr] ?NHG: atzen (hunter’s language) ‘to provide nestlings with food, nourishment’ (originally Bavarian instead of ätzen—secondary umlaut?); SBP/TPK: Nn/Agent (animal) – Na/Addressee (young animal) – pNmit/Instr. Sememe B ‘to let (one’s) livestock graze’ Old High German: SBP/TKR --- Middle High German: etzen/ezzen: SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) – pNuf/place (pasture) Early New High German: ätzen, etzen, atzen: ‘to have (the vegetation of an area) grazed off’ SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) Early New High German: ätzen, etzen, atzen: ‘to pasture (livestock)’, SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) – Na/Patient (livestock) Late New High German: --- New High German: --- Sememe C ‘to graze something off’ Old High German --- Middle High German: æßen: SBP/TKR: NGn/Agent (human) – NGa/Affected object/place (slope) Early New High German: --- Late New High German: --- New High German: --- Sememe D ‘to drive (livestock) to woodland pasture’ Old High German --- Middle High German --- Early New High German: ätzen, etzen, atzen: SBP/TKR: NGn/Agent (human) – nga/Affected object (livestock) Straipsniai / Articles 21 ALBRECHT GREULE Late New High German: --- New High German: --- Sememe E ‘to lure animals with feed, bait; to provide something with lure food, bait’ Old High German --- Middle High German ätzen: SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) – Na/Affected object (fishing rod) – pNₘᵢₜ/Instr Early New High German ätzen, etzen, atzen: SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) – Na/Patient (catching device) – pNₘᵢₜ/Affected object (bait) Early New High German ässen: SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) – Na/Patient (animal) Late New High German: --- New High German: --- Sememe F ‘to feed someone something, to regale someone with something’ ‘to feed something (e.g. oats)’ Old High German --- Middle High German aetzen: SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) – Nd/Addressee (human) – Na/Affected object (scent) Early New High German ätzen, etzen, atzen: SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) – Na/Affected object (food) Late New High German: --- New High German: --- Sememe G ‘to harm someone through unauthorized grazing of their fodder areas’ Old High German -- Middle High German etzen, ezzen: SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) – [Na/Patient (human)] – [pNₐₙ/place] Early New High German ätzen, etzen, atzen: SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) – Na/Patient (human) Late New High German: --- New High German:--- Sememe H ‘to behave hostilely toward someone; to harbor feelings of revenge, to plunder’, ‘to harm someone, to pillage, rob (in wartime)’ Old High German --- Middle High German --- Early New High German ätzen, etzen, atzen: SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) Late New High German: --- 22 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXIV Ätzend! Zur Geschichte der Verben ätzen, atzen, äsen New High German: --- Sememe I (of herbivorous animals, especially in hunters’ language of game) ‘to eat, consume, graze something’, ‘to take in nourishment’ (hunters’ language) Old High German: --- Middle High German: --- Early New High German: ässen: SBP/TKR: NGn/Agent (animal) Late New High German sich äßen (hunters’ language) SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (wild animals) – pNan/place New High German: äsen (hunters’ language) Sememe J ‘to let something be eaten away by a sharp substance (acid, lye) through chemical agents acting on the surface, to etch, clean’ Old High German ätzen (attested only in the passive: giezzi tuurin) Middle High German: --- Early New High German: ätzen, etzen, atzen: SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) – Na/affected object Late New High German: --- New High German: ätzen ‘to treat something with acid, lye, or the like in order to dissolve or remove it’, SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) – Na/Affected object – pNmit/Instr. (acid, lye, or the like) Sememe K ‘(of acids, lyes, or the like) to act destructively, corrosively on something’ Old High German: --- Middle High German: --- Early New High German: --- Late New High German: ‘only PartPräs for the harmful effect of lyes and acids, poisons!’ New High German: ätzen, SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (acids, lyes, or the like) – Na/Affected object – predominantly present participle ätzend. Sememe L ‘to produce something on the surface of a material through the use of acid, lye, or the like, to etch’ (DUW), ‘to produce or create something through the action of chemical agents, to engrave something into a surface (artistically), then generally to cut or incise something’ (DWBneu, vol. 3, p. 392) Old High German: --- Middle High German: --- Straipsniai / Articles 23 ALBRECHT GREULE Early New High German: ätzen, etzen, atzen: SBP/TKR: NGn/Agent (human) – Na/efffected object (engraving) – pNin/place (surface) Late New High German ätzen: SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) – Na/Affected object (material) New High German ätzen: SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) – Effected object (image) – pNauf,in/place (material surface). 5. COMMENTARY We proceed from the assumption that the three-valent verbs (West Germanic) *atjaand *atja/*ättjawere synonymous in the communication of the pre-Old High German language period. However, their causativity can be interpreted as both factitive and permissive: ‘x causes y to eat z’ (factitive) and ‘x lets y eat z’ (permissive). It should also be noted that the verb West Germanic *ātja-/*ättja- (< Germanic *ēt-ja-) may originally have been not a causative but an ornative verb; morphologically (derivation with the ja suffix) and semantically (‘x provides y with nourishment/feed’), however, it stood close to the “true” (Germanic) eat-causative. In Old High German, no difference can be discerned between the “genuinely causative” ezzen (< *atja-n) and ornative (?) āzen/*ātzen (< *atja/*attja-); both are used as three-valent verbs. The same applies to Middle High German etzen, ätzen and aȥen. 6. STRUCTURING OF THE SEMEMES The (12) sememes extracted from the dictionaries, syntactically interpreted, and consolidated are arranged above in broad semantic order: ‘give food’ – ‘feed’ – ‘pasture’ – ‘graze off’ and ‘treat with acid’; the sememes J to L (‘treat with acid’, etc.) are furthest removed from the etymological basic meaning (‘x nourishes y with z’). The (pre-Old High German) initial situation can be described as follows: As eat-causatives, three verbs were available that differed little from one another formally. It is highly probable that the threefold synonymy diverged at an early stage, especially since causativity can be interpreted as both factitive and permissive and—in the present case—the verb arising from Germanic *etja-n was probably derived as an ornative from the Germanic noun *eta-m ‘food remains’ or *et-on ‘manger’. At the beginning of the development of German, Sememe A displays a variability that does not consist in the fact that the sememe can be used both permissively ‘let eat’ 24 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXIV Ätzend! Zur Geschichte der Verben ätzen, atzen, äsen ‘’ and factitively ‘make eat’. Rather, the second actant is not restricted to ‘human’ but varies between ‘human’ and ‘animal’. This alternation with three actants in the SBP/TKR: Nn/Agent (human) – Na/Addressee (humans/animals) – [pNmit/Affected object (food)] persists through Late New High German. At the same time, the formula shows that the third actant is bracketed, i.e. what is given to eat or fed can be expressed as a clause constituent, but need not be. In terms of valency theory, this is an optionally three-valent SBP, and a further possibility of variation arises because the actant ‘Affected object’ (‘food/feed’) need not be mentioned. As the Goethe Dictionary shows, on the way to New High German Sememe A is restricted in two respects: it loses the actant ‘Affected object’ entirely, and the variation in the second actant ‘Addressee’ disappears and becomes restricted to ‘animal’. That this is caused by a special or technical use of the verb becomes clear in New High German, where the use of atzen is marked as “hunters’ language” and the first and second actants are further restricted by reference to the scene in which animals (not humans) provide their young with nourishment. The fact that in New High German the formant ätzen is no longer used for this sememe, but (Bavarian?) atzen, could indicate displacement by ätzen in the meaning of Sememe J. What position does Sememe F, attested only in Middle High German and Early New High German, occupy in this context? Its TKR [Agent (human) provides Addressee (human/animal) with Affected object (food)] does not differ in its basic constellation from the causative of eat, but in Middle High German it is fitted into the “classical” give-construction: Nn/Agent (human) – Nd/Addressee (human) – Na/Affected object, with the meaning ‘to give someone food’. The Addressee now stands in the dative rather than, as in Sememe A, in the accusative and is omitted in Early New High German. The Affected object (what is used to nourish) moves into the accusative, whereby a prepositional group is saved in the construction. Already in Old High German, the narrowing of the perspective of the action to animals, more precisely to livestock, already observable in the development of Sememe A, and the necessity of feeding them or allowing them to graze at a suitable place become clear. Thus the original permissivity is exploited at the expense of factitivity, and the actant ‘Addressee’ is fixed as ‘Patient’ to ‘animals (livestock)’; the actant ‘Affected object (feed)’ disappears, and a new actant, namely the place of grazing, appears as if on the scene. Although the corresponding VAK: Nn/Agent (human) – Na/Patient (livestock) – pN/place (pasture) Straipsniai / Articles 25 ALBRECHT GREULE is not fully attested at any language stage, for Sememe B a VAK with three actants follows from the “scene.” Related to it is the two-valent Sememe C, attested only in Middle High German, in which, as a consequence of perfectivity (‘graze off’), the place appears as Na/Affected object. In the Early New High German (two-valent) Sememe C ((‘drive livestock) to woodland pasture’), which can be understood as an intensification of Sememe B, the ‘place’ is, by contrast, omitted and ‘livestock’ is introduced as Na/Affected object. Sememe E adopts the reciprocal perspective on pasturing livestock: here the animals are not driven but lured with bait. The focus in this sememe (attested only in Middle High German and Early New High German) is on the bait and the baiting device. In the transition of the meaning of pasturing in the broader sense (Sememes B, C, D, E, G) from livestock farming to hunting, a sememe (Sememe I) emerges during the language change from Early New High German to New High German, fixed to the formant äsen (hunters’ language), whose meaning results from the reflexivization of ‘feed/pasture’, namely ‘to nourish, pasture, feed oneself’, with the first actant Nn/Agent restricted to wild animals. Since Middle High German times, allowing livestock to graze seems to have led to legal disputes. Only in this way can the development toward Sememe G ‘to harm someone through unauthorized grazing of their fodder areas’ and even the extension of meaning recognizable in Sememe H, attested only in Early New High German, to ‘harm, plunder, rob’ be understood. While the development of the sememes described above—apart from Sememe A (atzen) and Sememe I (äsen)—had no effects on New High German and took place only in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, the group of Sememes J to K appears to lie completely apart, but is important for understanding the development toward New High German: in particular, ätzen (or verätzen) is still present in the standard language and in the form of the present participle ätzend (derogatory) ‘horrible’ is still current in youth and colloquial language. It is noteworthy that Sememe J is attested as early as Old Norse, although only as a gloss without VAK, and is attested at all language stages except Middle High German with semantic differentiations. The question arises how the meaning ‘to let something be eaten away by a sharp substance (acid, lye) through chemical agents acting on the surface, to etch, clean’ developed from the meaning of the causative. Duden’s German Dictionary of Etymology offers an approach to an explanation under ätzen (Riecke 2014: 136), noting that the verb became a technical term at the end of the fifteenth century and that the technical usage proceeds from the notion that the acid, so to speak, “eats its way into the metal.” We must evidently assume an early linguistic-historical metaphor by which the biting and tearing involved in feeding animals was transferred to the action of sharp (corrosive) 26 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXIV Ätzend! Zur Geschichte der Verben ätzen, atzen, äsen substances on the human body. This is also suggested by the two Old High German glosses in which Latin mordere ‘to bite’ was translated with Old High German ezzen (read: *etzen). If the assumption is correct, Sememe J most likely developed from Sememe B ‘to let livestock graze’, and contiguously, because animals’ biting during grazing appears as a marginal phenomenon. The change in meaning becomes apparent in the VAK insofar as the actant ‘place of grazing’ of Sememe B drops out, the actant Na/Patient becomes Na/Affected object and is no longer restricted to ‘livestock’. Furthermore, in New High German the two-place VAK was expanded by the actant pNmit/Instr, thereby creating the possibility of specifying exactly which agent etches. 7. CONCLUSION / FINAL REMARKS At the beginning of the history, in Old High German, there are three verb formants that are largely identical morphologically and semantically: they are ja-derivatives of the Germanic verb morpheme *et-a- ‘to eat’, and their meaning is causative ‘to make eat’ or ‘to let eat’. At the end, in present-day German-language communication, there are likewise three verbs that formally developed from Germanic *atja- and *etja-, but semantically have not remained eat-causatives; rather, they are used only in specialized language, atzen, äsen in hunters’ language and ätzen in technical language. The semantic development is characterized less by the differentiation and clear assignment of factitive and permissive causativity to one of the three verb formants than by the fact that the human activity of nourishing a living being soon became concentrated on livestock farming. (The same process can also be observed with the drink-causative tränken ‘to give animals drink’.) In the VAK, the development is reflected in the second actant ‘Addressee’ being fixed to animals and, instead of the type of food—important for human nutrition—the place where nourishment or grazing takes place entering the scene as the third actant. The strongest evidence for the purely early linguistic-historical “shift” of the reference domain into the sphere of livestock pasture is that Sememe J, already attested in Old High German, ‘to let something be eaten away by a sharp substance (acid, lye) through chemical agents acting on the surface’, was metaphorically transferred from biting livestock (and game?). It should be noted that, probably when its use was restricted to technical language, this sememe became fixed to the New High German formant ätzen (Old High German ezzen). The Early New High German period displays an unusually broad semantic spectrum with 10 sememes, which is created by meaning transfer to other semantically related Straipsniai / Articles 27 ALBRECHT GREULE reference domains (e.g. the legal domain), by specification of the meaning of pasturing and feeding animals on the one hand, and by specification of the technical meaning ‘ätzen’ on the other. In this process, the spectrum of meanings developed clearly away from the original causativity, a development that reached a high point in the Middle High German and Early New High German Sememe F ‘to give someone food’, but had no effect on New High German. The pasturing of livestock by humans and all sememes derived from it in the Late Middle Ages likewise leave no traces in present-day language use, which is probably connected with the declining importance of livestock farming for communication in industrial society. It is characteristic, moreover, that in New High German the etymologically original causativity of ätzen, atzen and äsen was completely lost, and the sememes currently assigned to the three verbs were pushed to the margins of specialized and technical language in their use. BIBLIOGRAPHY DUW – German Universal Dictionary, 4th newly revised and expanded edition, edited by the Duden editorial office, Mannheim, Leipzig, Vienna, Zurich: Dudenverlag, 2001. DWBneu – German Dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, revised edition, edited by the Academy of the GDR and the Göttingen Academy of Sciences. Vol. 1, col. 15, Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1983; vol. 3, cols. 337–339, 390–392, Stuttgart: S. Hirzel, 2007. EWAhd I – Etymological Dictionary of Old High German, edited by A. L. Lloyd, O. Springer, R. Lühr, Göttingen, Zurich: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1988. EWAhd II – Etymological Dictionary of Old High German, edited by A. L. Lloyd, O. Springer, R. Lühr, Göttingen, Zurich: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998. Greule Albrecht, Korhonen Jarmo 2021: Historical Valency. An introduction to the study of German language history on a valency-theoretical basis, Tübingen: Niemeyer. Riecke Jörg 1996: The weak jan-verbs of Old High German. An attempt at classification, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. Schützeichel Rudolf 2006: Old High German Dictionary, 6th edition, revised and expanded with the glosses, Tübingen: Niemeyer. Seebold Elmar 1970: Comparative and Etymological Dictionary of the Germanic Strong Verbs, The Hague, Paris: Mouton. 28 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXIV Ätzend! Zur Geschichte der Verben ätzen, atzen, äsen ONLINE DICTIONARIES AHDWB – Old High German Dictionary. Access: http://awb.saw-leipzig.de. FNHDWB – Early New High German Dictionary. Access: https://fwb-online.de. GoetheWB – Goethe Dictionary. Access: https://gwb.uni-trier.de. MHDWB – Middle High German Dictionary. Access: http://www.mhdwb-online.de. Annoying, unpleasant, repellent! On the history of the verbs to feed, to eat, to devour SUMMARY At the beginning of the history of Old High German there were three verb formants that were identical morphologically and semantically. They were jaderivatives of the Germanic verb morpheme *et-a- ‘essen’ (‘to eat’), with the causative meaning ‘essen machen’ (‘to make eat’) or ‘essen lassen’ (‘to let eat’). In present-day German, three verbs have remained, formally derived from Germanic *atja-/*ėtja, although semantically they are no longer eat causatives; only atzen, äsen continue to be used in technical language, or ätzen in hunters’ language. The ten Early New High German sememes recorded in the dictionary create a broad spectrum which, on the one hand, through transfer of meaning to other semantically related domains (for example, law) defines the meanings of pasturing and feeding livestock and, on the other hand, distinguishes the technical meaning ‘ätzen’. Thus, separately from the spectrum of meanings under discussion, causativity developed, reaching its peak in the Middle High German and Early New High German Sememe F ‘jemandem Nahrung geben’ (‘to give food to someone’), but without affecting Low German. All sememes connected with pasturing livestock and derived from it in the Late Middle Ages do not reflect the importance of animal husbandry processes in present-day usage. It should be emphasized that in New High German the original etymological causativity of ätzen, atzen and äsen disappeared, while the use of the sememes assigned to the three verbs today was pushed to the margins of specialized and technical language. Received on March 25, 2021. ALBRECHT GREULE University of Regensburg, Institute of German Studies, D-93040 Regensburg [email protected] Straipsniai / Articles 29