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BJÖRN HANSEN

and the Slavonic

Languages — The Reconstruction of a Success Story

müssen

“Dem harten Muss bequemt sich Will und Grille.”

Goethe

0. Introduction

The following article concerns a particular instance of language contact be-

tween German and several Slavonic languages. The German modal verb

müssen

respectively its Old High German ancestor

muozan

(Middle High

entered into the Slavonic world and was taken up there

by six Slavonic languages: Polish

müezen

)

musieç,

Czech

muset

, Slovak

musieÈ

Lower Sorbian

musaÊ

, Ukrainian

musyty

and Belorussian

music

Besters-Dilger (1997) shows, even Russian had a modal verb

musit

at its

This article deals with the situ-

ation of the Slavonic exponents of modality at the time of this borrowing

from German and the question as to why these languages so readily adopt-

ed the German modal

. The linguistic literature does not offer any

explanations for this phenomenon, except for the hypothesis of the Polish

linguist Aleksander Brückner, who claimed (1927, s.v.) that

müssen

“was

a general borrowing because the anarchic Slavs did not have a word of their

own for ‘must’”.

müssen

Mytropolyt Ilarion (1979–1994, 147f) objects to this

statement: “Concerning the Ukrainians we can refute this statement of

Brück-ner’s by the following well-known Polish proverb: “‘Must’ exists

only in Russia; in Poland everyone can do what he likes”.

I thank P. M. Hill (University of Hamburg) and the participants of the International

Conference of the Linguistic Society of Belgium ‘Modal verbs in the Romance and Ger-

manic Languages’, Antwerp 1998, and of the 6. Norddeutsches Linguistisches Kolloquium

1999 in Hamburg for comments on earlier versions of this paper.

[...] ju˝ w 14. wieku ogólna po˝yczka; bo anarchiczni S∏owianie nie majà

w∏asnego s∏owa dla ‘musu’”.

“

mus

;

“U vidno‰enni do ukra

nciv, ce tverdÏennja A. Brjuknera zapereãuje os

take pol

notoriãne dictum: ‘Musi — na Rusi, a w Polsce jak kto chce.’”

Scando-Slavica Tomus 46, 2000

The German Modal Verb

German

disposal from the 17th to the 18th century

Björn Hansen

in the Slavonic

world, especially with the time of borrowing and the semantics of the mo-

dal in the modern languages. Finally I offer an explanation based on a

cross-linguistic definition of modal auxiliaries and the diachronic analysis

of the means of expression for necessity in the Slavonic languages.

1. The History of German

müssen

changed from a diffuse expression

of modality — predominantly of a form of possibility — to one of pure ne-

cessity and partly exchanged its meaning with

müssen

dürfen

. A certain trace of the

‘leisure’. In the lin-

guistic literature different explanations for this shift in meaning have been

proposed, cf. Bech 1951, Gamon 1993, Grimm and Grimm 1854/1954,

Müller and Zarncke 1854–61, Splett 1993, and Fritz and Gloning 1997. I

will limit myself to characterizing the crucial elements of the view pro-

posed by Fritz and Gloning (1997), to which I subscribe. They maintain

that during the early period of old high German

Muße,

muozan

carried the mean-

ing ‘to be in a certain situation’:

refers to

the fact that a course of action or a state of affairs is shaped by relevant

external circumstances. In earlier old high German the prevailing

implication is that the situation in question makes possible a course of

action or a state of affairs [...] The use [of

muozan

] is still relatively

open in later old high German but the word now takes on usages that

imply that the situation in question determines a course of action or a

state of affairs. (Fritz and Gloning 1997, 93; my transl. — BH)

muozan

This diffuseness of meaning is illustrated by examples from Old High Ger-

man. The ‘possibility’ reading prevails in the earliest texts, although the

meaning ‘necessity’ is already found in Otfrid and Notker:

Possibility:

. ‘The woman offered

her life, so that [the child] might stay alive.’ (Otfrid, 9th century)

Necessity:

úbe dánne héiz chúmet tér uuólchenônto súnt-uuínt. so m

ozen die

omen r

sen ába d

en dórnen

. ‘When then the cloud-bearing south-

Scando-Slavica Tomus 46, 2000

This paper consists of three parts. In the first part I will briefly charac-

terize the history of the German modal with regard to its semantic develop-

ment. The second part deals with the borrowing processes

Throughout its history, the verb

old meaning still persists in the cognate noun

In early old high German the relatively open use of

Ira férah bot thaz wíb, thaz iz múasi haben líb

Müssen

and the Slavonic Languages

wind comes hot, must the flowers fall from the thorns.’ (Notker, 10th

century)

In Middle High German the ‘necessity’ reading gains ground and begins to

dominate, but nevertheless

müezen

is still polysemious, since we can still

find instances of the other meaning:

Necessity:

Nu muoz ich von ir gescheiden sin: tr

ric ist mir al daz herze m

‘Now I must leave you, I have a sadness in my heart.’ (14th century)

Possibility:

‘She asked the prioress to be allowed to serve in the hospital.’ (14th

century)

in the

second one. During the next stage of semantic development the ‘possi-

bility’ reading is disappearing and is being restricted to negative contexts.

The old ‘possibility’ meaning persists up to the 19th century and in spoken

language up to the present:

müssen

in the first sentence, but

dürfen

Ich muß nicht nach dem Schlosse zu gehn vergessen

. ‘I must not forget

to go to the castle.’ (17/18th century)

Du mußt nicht meinen, dass du mir damit einen Gefallen tust

. ‘You

can’t think that your doing me any favor.’, vs.:

Du musst nicht kommen, wenn du nicht willst

. ‘You don’t have to come

when you don’t want to.’

In explaining that type of polysemy we have to consider the universal inter-

definability of possibility and necessity: ‘it is not possible that p’ is seman-

tically equivalent to ‘it is necessary that not p’ (in logical notation:

¬ ◊

≡

p).

The difference in meaning between

du musst nicht meinen

(

p) can be explained in two ways: either

as the persistence of the old possibility meaning in the first sentence (

du musst nicht kommen

(

¬ ◊

p) or as two different readings of the scope of

negation. In the latter case we are dealing with “a process whereby the less

informative statement ‘

p’ implicates the stronger, more informative

p’” (van der Auwera, forthcoming). Simply put, if a speaker de-

nies the necessity of doing something, he or she does not have a great im-

pact on the behavior of other people and hence does not say anything of

Scando-Slavica Tomus 46, 2000

Si bat die eptissin, daz si siechmeisterin muste sin in deme siechh

In modern German we use

and

which is equivalent to

one ‘

Björn Hansen

great importance. Therefore the listener might give a new interpretation to

this statement by shifting the scope of negation, which leads to the reading

‘prohibition’.

In modern German

müssen

Dynamic:

Jeder Mensch muss sterben

. ‘Every human must die.’

Deontic:

Ich sage dir: Du musst sofort nach Hause kommen

. ‘I’m telling you

that you must come home right away.’

Epistemic:

Herr Klemens muss früher einmal ein stattlicher Mann gewesen sein

‘Mr. Klemens must have been a stately man once.’

2. The Verb

müssen

in the Slavonic World: Then and Now

We will begin with a reconstruction of the success story of

müssen

in the

Slavonic languages. I will point out the first instances of the modal

müssen

in the individual languages and briefly characterize the language contact.

Current meanings will also be given. Since a great many languages have to

be analyzed, I will mainly rely on data from lexicographic works such as

large explanatory and historical dictionaries.

2.1 Polish

musieç

Polish came into intensive contact with German in the 12th century when

masses of German settlers entered the country. In the cities founded by

these settlers German law was used, the so-called Magdeburg law, and the

use of both languages was widespread, which created a language situation

leading to the borrowing of many German words. Polish belongs to one of

the first Slavonic languages where the German modal can be traced in writ-

ten texts. However, we do not know whether Polish adopted it directly or

through the mediation of Czech. The exact date of the borrowing is not

clear, because

musieç

Scando-Slavica Tomus 46, 2000

belongs to the class of modal verbs (“Mo-

dalverben”) and functions as the central expression of necessity on all three

levels of modality, i.e. it can be used in dynamic, deontic, or epistemic

readings or meanings. The old ambiguity is rather marginal.

is found in the earliest Old Polish texts, i.e. in the

14th and 15th century. At this stage we can find examples both of the dy-

namic and the deontic variant:

Müssen

and the Slavonic Languages

Dynamic necessity:

Ono naszyenye ny myalo nad sobà pyersczy y nye moglo myecz maczy-

czye a przeto mvszylo vschnàcz . ‘This seed had no breast above it and

no nourishing mother and therefore had to dry up.’ (15th century)

Obligation:

Tho szlubyenye, czo thà pany wysznala [ ... ] , to mvszy ona dzyerszecz .

‘The woman must keep the promise she made.’ (15th century)

Since the 16th century the modal can be used epistemically.

Comparing the Polish data with the development of German müssen de-

scribed above we can see that at the time of borrowing, which definitely

must be before the 14th century, the Middle High German verb in its main

use had already changed to that of necessity, but nevertheless still dis-

played traces of the old ‘possibility’ meaning, especially in negated or oth-

er non-affirmative contexts. It is interesting to note that Polish adopted

müssen as a pure expression of necessity and that even in negated contexts

it did not contain any ambiguity at all. Musieç is from the beginning an un-

ambigous word.

Maçie tedy o to stáránie c˝yniç, aby mistrzom s∏uszne zap∏aty by∏y

náznác˝one: ták, ˝eby oni nemuÊieli sobie po˝ywienia tákiemi sposoby

szukáç, ktoreby ich od náuk odrywá∏y . ‘You have to take care that the

masters get paid adequately so that they are not forced to look for their

food in a manner that would distract them from education.’ (16th cen-

tury)

In general the negation scope functions iconically, meaning that we are

dealing with a regular external negation. Polish thus adopted the German

verb with a slightly different function, i.e. without its polysemy.

Today musieç is a full-fledged modal auxiliary; its uses on the dynamic,

deontic and epistemic levels are more or less identical to German.

1. Dynamic necessity:

Matka mi zachorowa∏a i musia∏em szukaç doktora . ‘My mother fell ill

and I had to call for a doctor.’

2. Obligation:

Jest goràco i êle si´ czujesz, ale b´dziesz musia∏ umyç mi wóz, synu. I

jeszcze zmienisz mi olej w silniku . ‘It is hot and you are miserable, son,

but you will have to wash my car and also change the oil.’

Scando-Slavica Tomus 46, 2000

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