Adverbial connectives

In this chapter, the rise and grammaticalization process of the adverbial connective elements aber and allerdings are discussed. Aber ‘but, however’, one of the oldest connectives, is attested in OHG as a VP adverb with restitutive meaning and as an IP adverb with repetitive meaning. Through a reanalysis, aber has come to be newly defined as an exponent of the category Coordination Phrase (CoorP). However, aber is only syntactically a coordinative element in the very first position. In other positions, it is syntactically an adverbial and semantically a coordinative element. The second adverbial connective considered in this chapter, i.e. allerdings ‘however’, has undergone a similar development from a VP adverb to a sentence adverb and later to a connective element. However, allerdings is syntactically still an adverbial element, also in the first position.