This thesis investigates the stabilization of divalent germanium using substituted diethanol amine ligands. Germylenes of type RN(CH2CH2OH)2Ge were obtained from N-heterocyclic germylenes and N-alkyl diethanol amines in yields of up to 94%. Single crystal X-ray diffraction confims the presence of a transannular Ge-N dative bond in all cases. In addition, intermolecular dimers containing Ge2O2 rings are formed for R = Me and Et. Reaction of the four germylenes L with nickel carbonyl yielded the respective germylene complexes L2Ni(CO)2 and LNi(CO)3. The germylenes and their complexes were investigated with DFT methods. Only four methods, SVWN, BB1K, MPWB1K and M062x gave acceptable Ge-N distances. Dimerization energies of the germylenes were examined with the thermochemically accurate M062x method. At the M062x/Def2-TZVP level, the dimerization energies of the germylenes are very small (ΔG° ≈ 0 kcal/mol). The experimentally observed dimerization or lack thereof may accordingly be determined by packing effects in the solid state or solvation energies in solution.

This dissertation examines the interplay of Situation Aspect and Viewpoint Aspect in two classes of constructions in Polish: i) anticausatives with and without Dative subjects, ex. (Jankowi) złamały się okulary John broke the glasses involuntarily / The glasses broke; and ii) Factual Imperfectives, ex. Jadłam obiad I have eaten my dinner. With the first type of construction, the concern is why the unintentional causer reading is obtainable only in telic contexts and how two classes of Polish anticausatives – one with prefixed verbs and one with unprefixed verbs – differ structurally. The question that arises with analyses of Factual Imperfective constructions (FIs) is about the untypical role of imperfective aspect: how is it possible that the imperfective morphemes that the Slavic literature (almost) unanimously pairs with English Progressives do not neutralize telicity as the Progressive does? The dissertation finds evidence supporting the view that Slavic lexical prefixes are telicity markers and secondary predicates (cf. Svenonius 2004, Žaucer 2009). It argues that imperfectives that lack any aspectual morpheme and have the accusative case assigned to a direct object, nonetheless possess a non-overt aspectual operator located in the domain of Viewpoint Aspect. The dissertation enriches the recent discussions concerned with the puzzle of how to account for various readings of the imperfective (Cipria & Roberts 2000, Hacquard 2006, Deo 2009) by providing a semantic analysis of an interpretation not attested in languages like French, Italian and Spanish on which the discussions have focused so far. I argue that the Russian and Polish patterns dubbed as Existential Factual Imperfectives (cf. Grønn 2003) carry a silent Epistemic Modal that selects the imperfective due to its right semantic type: <s,t> in contrast to the <t> type of the perfective. From a cross-linguistic perspective, this study is relevant for syntactic and semantic theories of aspect in natural language especially for the theory of imperfectivity. From a language specific perspective, this study aims to provide a deeper understanding of the particular aspect-related conditions that play a role in licensing oblique (Dative) causers in Polish.

No description available.

Enquanto pronomes que vão além da codificação dos participantes de um evento denotado pelo verbo, os dativos interacionais codificam os interlocutores de uma interação no evento de fala. O objetivo desta pesquisa é descrever os processos semântico-pragmáticos envolvidos no uso dos dativos interacionais galegos. Para isso, baseei-me nos estudos de Jakobson (1936), Janda (1988, 1993), Langacker (1987, 2008), Wierzbicka (1988), entre outros, para descrever o processo de conceitualização de um evento marcado pelo caso dativo, definir um protótipo para o caso dativo e descrever algumas de suas extensões semânticas partindo do modelo teórico da Gramática Cognitiva (Langacker, 1987, 1991, 2008), da Teoria dos Protótipos (Rosch, 1973, 1978, 1999) e das discussões sobre extensões semânticas via processos de metáfora e metonímia (Lakoff, 1897; Lakoff e Johnson, 1980; Evans e Green, 2006). Os dados utilizados nesta pesquisa vieram de corpora informatizados, o TMILG Tesouro Medieval Informatizado da Lingua Galega e o TILG Tesouro Informatizado da Lingua Galega, e de gravações e anotações feitas de interações com falantes de galego. A partir desses dados, foi elaborada uma pesquisa on-line para verificar as possibilidades de usos e interpretações dos dativos interacionais. Esta dissertação mostra duas funções dos dativos interacionais: o dativo interacional de interesse e o dativo interacional de solidariedade. Ambos mapeiam a relação semântica do caso dativo para a esfera do ato de fala e se referem aos interlocutores da interação, mas o fazem de forma diferente. Enquanto o dativo de interesse indica a afetação indireta ou uma avaliação sobre o evento narrado, o dativo de solidariedade atua como um convite para o destinatário se envolver com o conteúdo do enunciado (Janda, 1988, 1993; Maldonado, 1994; Álvarez, 1997; Fried, 2011). Ao utilizar os dativos interacionais, o falante estabelece relações entre um dos interlocutores e o evento narrado. Desse modo, os pronomes dativos também podem ser marcadores de (inter)subjetividade que selecionam um participante da fala como um colaborador ou um compartilhador de opinião (Traugott, 2009; Haddad, 2013). / As pronouns that go beyond the codification of participants in an event denoted by a verb, interactional datives encode the interlocutors of an interaction in the speech event. The main goal of this thesis is to describe the semantic-pragmatic processes involved in the use of Galician interactional datives. To do so, I have employed the works of Jakobson (1936), Janda (1988, 1993), Langacker (1987, 2008), Wierzbicka (1988), among others, in order to describe the process of conceptualizing an event marked by the dative case, to define the prototype associated with the dative case and to describe some of its semantic extensions, based on the Cognitive Grammar framework (Langacker, 1987, 1991, 2008), Prototype Theory (Rosch, 1973, 1978, 1999), and discussions on semantic extensions through metaphor and metonymy (Lakoff, 1897, Lakoff and Johnson 1980, Evans and Green, 2006). The data under analysis are from TMILG Medieval Treasury Computerized of Galician Language and TILG Treasury Computerized of Galician Language, and from recordings and notes collected in interactions with Galician native speakers. An online reading test was developed as to verify the possibilities of uses and interpretations of interactional datives. In this thesis, I claim the functions of Galician interactional datives are twofold: the interactional dative of interest and the interactional dative of solidarity. Both functions map the semantic relationship of the dative case onto the sphere of the speech act and refer to the interlocutors of the interaction, but in rather different ways. While the dative of interest indicates indirect affectation or an evaluation of the narrated event, the dative of solidarity acts as an invitation for the addressee to get involved with the content of the utterance (Janda, 1988, 1993, Maldonado, 1994; Álvarez, 1997; Fried, 2011). In using interactional datives, the speaker establishes a relationship between one of the interlocutors and the narrated event. In this way, dative pronouns can also be considered (inter)subjectivity markers, which select a speech participant as a collaborator or opinion sharer (Traugott, 2009; Haddad, 2013).

Enquanto pronomes que vão além da codificação dos participantes de um evento denotado pelo verbo, os dativos interacionais codificam os interlocutores de uma interação no evento de fala. O objetivo desta pesquisa é descrever os processos semântico-pragmáticos envolvidos no uso dos dativos interacionais galegos. Para isso, baseei-me nos estudos de Jakobson (1936), Janda (1988, 1993), Langacker (1987, 2008), Wierzbicka (1988), entre outros, para descrever o processo de conceitualização de um evento marcado pelo caso dativo, definir um protótipo para o caso dativo e descrever algumas de suas extensões semânticas partindo do modelo teórico da Gramática Cognitiva (Langacker, 1987, 1991, 2008), da Teoria dos Protótipos (Rosch, 1973, 1978, 1999) e das discussões sobre extensões semânticas via processos de metáfora e metonímia (Lakoff, 1897; Lakoff e Johnson, 1980; Evans e Green, 2006). Os dados utilizados nesta pesquisa vieram de corpora informatizados, o TMILG Tesouro Medieval Informatizado da Lingua Galega e o TILG Tesouro Informatizado da Lingua Galega, e de gravações e anotações feitas de interações com falantes de galego. A partir desses dados, foi elaborada uma pesquisa on-line para verificar as possibilidades de usos e interpretações dos dativos interacionais. Esta dissertação mostra duas funções dos dativos interacionais: o dativo interacional de interesse e o dativo interacional de solidariedade. Ambos mapeiam a relação semântica do caso dativo para a esfera do ato de fala e se referem aos interlocutores da interação, mas o fazem de forma diferente. Enquanto o dativo de interesse indica a afetação indireta ou uma avaliação sobre o evento narrado, o dativo de solidariedade atua como um convite para o destinatário se envolver com o conteúdo do enunciado (Janda, 1988, 1993; Maldonado, 1994; Álvarez, 1997; Fried, 2011). Ao utilizar os dativos interacionais, o falante estabelece relações entre um dos interlocutores e o evento narrado. Desse modo, os pronomes dativos também podem ser marcadores de (inter)subjetividade que selecionam um participante da fala como um colaborador ou um compartilhador de opinião (Traugott, 2009; Haddad, 2013). / As pronouns that go beyond the codification of participants in an event denoted by a verb, interactional datives encode the interlocutors of an interaction in the speech event. The main goal of this thesis is to describe the semantic-pragmatic processes involved in the use of Galician interactional datives. To do so, I have employed the works of Jakobson (1936), Janda (1988, 1993), Langacker (1987, 2008), Wierzbicka (1988), among others, in order to describe the process of conceptualizing an event marked by the dative case, to define the prototype associated with the dative case and to describe some of its semantic extensions, based on the Cognitive Grammar framework (Langacker, 1987, 1991, 2008), Prototype Theory (Rosch, 1973, 1978, 1999), and discussions on semantic extensions through metaphor and metonymy (Lakoff, 1897, Lakoff and Johnson 1980, Evans and Green, 2006). The data under analysis are from TMILG Medieval Treasury Computerized of Galician Language and TILG Treasury Computerized of Galician Language, and from recordings and notes collected in interactions with Galician native speakers. An online reading test was developed as to verify the possibilities of uses and interpretations of interactional datives. In this thesis, I claim the functions of Galician interactional datives are twofold: the interactional dative of interest and the interactional dative of solidarity. Both functions map the semantic relationship of the dative case onto the sphere of the speech act and refer to the interlocutors of the interaction, but in rather different ways. While the dative of interest indicates indirect affectation or an evaluation of the narrated event, the dative of solidarity acts as an invitation for the addressee to get involved with the content of the utterance (Janda, 1988, 1993, Maldonado, 1994; Álvarez, 1997; Fried, 2011). In using interactional datives, the speaker establishes a relationship between one of the interlocutors and the narrated event. In this way, dative pronouns can also be considered (inter)subjectivity markers, which select a speech participant as a collaborator or opinion sharer (Traugott, 2009; Haddad, 2013).

過去漢語與格研究多圍繞在給字句的分析上，包括給字句的類別，以及不同類別中的「給」應為何種詞類。本文以當代與格結構的核心問題為起點，主張介詞與格和雙賓與格並不具備衍生關係，而是動詞的兩個面向──中心語PLoc／轉移性質（allative）或中心語PHave／所屬性質（possessive），所決定的兩種不同的論元結構和句法形式。以其觀點而論，漢語的介詞與格由前者形成，而雙賓與格由後者形成，而漢語與格的不對稱性，即所謂巴克詭題（Baker’s Paradox），亦可從前述兩個動詞面向加以解釋。本文認為漢語的給字句和把字句的語法形式，亦是前述兩個動詞面向的展現。並且，相關的分析不止適用於漢語與格類動詞，非與格類動詞亦能獲得闡述。

Este trabalho apresenta uma análise da alternância dativa do verbo senden da língua alemã. Os pressupostos teóricos da Gramática de Construções postulados por Goldberg (1995) no que concerne aos bitransitivos e suas paráfrases preposicionais e a abordagem da sensitividade ao núcleo verbal de Rappaport Hovav e Levin (2008) são comparados e utilizados como ferramenta de análise do corpus. Por meio deles, analisa-se se as construções constituídas pelo verbo senden e o sintagma preposicional an denotam um evento de posse causada ou de movimento causado. As dificuldades encontradas para diferenciar recipiente de alvo e consequentemente o tipo de evento designado pela construção são discutidas. Apresentam-se preceitos abordados por Adler (2011) em seus estudos sobre a alternância dativa na língua alemã, que auxiliam na distinção do evento denotado pela construção. Assim, a pesquisa realizada corrobora as reflexões da autora sobre a nova faceta da preposição an que aparece em verbos de transferência o addressee-an, sustentando sua argumentação sobre o fato de que não são as variantes do objeto duplo (dativo), ou do sintagma preposicional, (no caso an) as responsáveis pelo evento denotado pela construção, mas sim os argumentos que a constitui. Essa pesquisa também propõe um outro tipo de classificação para a análise de verbos da língua alemã que denotam eventos de transferência em orações destituídas de agente volitivo: evento causal como transferência (Goldberg, 1995), no qual X CAUSA Y AFETADO A RECEBER Z EFEITO, evidenciando assim que não só o argumento TEMA, como também o agente da oração desempenha um papel fundamental na representação semântica da construção. / This work presents a dative alternance analysis of the verb senden from German language. The theoretical assumptions from the Construction Grammar postulated by Goldberg (1995) regarding the ditransitive and its prepositional paraphrase and a verb-sensitive approach to the dative alternation by Rappaport Hovav e Levin (2008) are compared and used as a corpus analysis tool. By means of them, it is analyzed if the constructions constituted by the verb senden and the prepositional syntagma an denote an event schemata caused possession or event schemata caused motion. The difficulties encountered to differentiate recipient and goal and, consequently, the kind of event designated by the construction are discussed. It is presented the precepts raised by Adler (2011) in her studies about the dative alternance in German language, which assist in the event distinction denoted by the construction. Thus, the realized research reinforce the authors reflections about the new facet of the preposition an that appears in transfer verbs the addressee-an, supporting the argumentation about the fact that it is not the double object variant (dative), or the prepositional sytagma (in the an case), the responsible for the event denoted by the construction, but the arguments that constitute it. This research also proposes another kind of classification for the analysis of German language verbs that denote transfer event in clauses deprived of volitive agent: causal event as transfer (Goldberg, 1995), in which X CAUSE Y AFFECT TO RECEIVE Z EFFECT, thus highlighting that not only the theme argument, but also the clause agent play a fundamental role in the semantics representation of the construction.

L'objectif est de déterminer si le sens attribué à la préposition provient d’un sémantisme initial, stable en langue mais susceptible de diversement se décliner en discours, ou s’il est constitué à partir de son environnement, par conséquent à partir des combinaisons opérées dans le discours lui-même. La réflexion est, dans la présente étude, centrée sur la relation de la préposition avec le verbe qui la sélectionne. Néanmoins, d'autres éléments environnants doivent être pris en considération dans la mesure où ils interviennent dans l’interprétation du sens. L'hypothèse est que la préposition possède une identité fondamentale qui fait qu'elle est choisie par le verbe en l'une des acceptions de ce dernier, afin de véhiculer un certain sens, et que, réciproquement, l'ensemble ainsi formé détermine la distribution du complément syntaxique de la préposition. Cette hypothèse repose sur l'adoption du principe, dans le point de vue retenu sur le fonctionnement de la langue, selon lequel la forme et le sens varient concomitamment. Autrement dit, une similitude de forme (par exemple la présence de la préposition à) est supposée intrinsèquement liée à une similitude de sens (il y a donc à rechercher un point commun sémantique à tous les verbes qui se construisent avec la préposition à) et, réciproquement, une différence de forme (par exemple la présence de la préposition à opposée à son absence) est supposée intrinsèquement liée à une différence de sens. L'adoption de ce principe heuristique impose, par le lien étroit que notre hypothèse institue entre le verbe et la préposition d’un côté, et entre le verbe et le syntagme prépositionnel de l’autre, d’envisager ces différents types de relations aussi bien dans des configurations formelles (syntaxiques) que dans des configurations sémantiques. Sur le plan formel, nous étions amenée à distinguer les différents types de groupes prépositionnels en fonction de leur lien plus ou moins proche avec le verbe. Notre hypothèse est que l’on peut rendre compte de la relation du verbe avec le syntagme prépositionnel qu’il régit au moyen d’un classement scalaire L’approche de la préposition à introduisant un groupe prépositionnel impose de séparer le complément de verbes des autres types de groupes prépositionnels(GP) dont les dénominations sont variés et contestables puisque les critères de définition fixés par la grammaire dite traditionnelle comme la suppression et le déplacement caractérisant habituellement le complément circonstanciel et la pronominalisation typique du complément sont insuffisamment distinctifs. Comme on trouve des compléments supprimables par exemple,elle chante (une chanson), dans l’emploi absolu du verbe, on trouve aussi des circonstants pronominalisables comme (il mange dans la cuisine, il y mange). Pour cela, le chapitre II présente deux contributions renouvelant ce que nous avons précédemment appelé « les théories classiques » : l'article de Lavieu (2006), s'affronte précisément aux difficultés que nous avons soulevées, et propose une reconfiguration terminologique et taxinomique distinguant entre « constituants » (où se rangent les « compléments » et les « ajouts ») et « incidents »Pour résoudre le problème de la distinction entre les différents types syntaxiques régis par à, nous avons opté pour un classement scalaire (idée inspirée de la théorie de l’actance de Lazard) qui détermine le degré de relation des verbes avec les différents actants régis par cette préposition. Ce classement a été fait au regard des mêmes tests syntaxiques sur un corpus illustrant la complémentation en à d’abord dans une structure simple et ensuite dans une structure double.Ainsi, nous avons tenté de caractériser formellement les GP en à régis par le verbe dans les différentes structures dans lesquelles ils figurent. Notre classement scalaire a montré qu’il y a une graduation dans le rapport du verbe avec le complément allant du degré le plus fort au degré le plus faible... / The objective of this thesis is to determine whether the meaning attributed to the preposition is primarily semantic or not. The aim is then to prove that though it is grammatically fixed, it can vary since it is shaped by its context, thereby assembled by multiple discourse combinations. In the present research, the focus is then centred on the study of the relationship between the preposition and the verb it determines. Accordingly, several other related elements will be studied as they intervene in the act of interpreting meaning itself. The thesis of this Ph.D dissertation suggests that the preposition has a given core identity which is determined by the verb itself and which by implication determines the meaning and the nature of the syntactic complement as well.This thesis contends then that form and meaning do vary considerably but still simultaneously. In other words, what determines form determines by implication meaning as well. The present thesis seeks then to study the different aspects and mechanics of the relationship between the verb and its preposition.In the present thesis, the study of the preposition requires all verb complements to remain separate from the different types of prepositional groups. The second chapter attempts then to re-examine the contentions of classical theories, particularly with reference to Laview’s article (2006). In order to effectively study the multiple differences and distinctions between the different syntactic classes, a scalar approach is adopted. The findings demonstrate in fact that the relationship between the verb and its complement is constantly varying. Actually, the fifth chapter of the second part includes the corpus needed to attest the research questions.The semantic research part of the present thesis, seeks in fact to further elaborate the principle that relates meaning to form. In order to demonstrate that, the approach has been based on the characteristics of the syntactic complements which are actually the main target of the analysis in the first part of the thesis.Conducting then a comparative analysis of different types of verbs which are all related by their respective preposition complement “à”, the following findings are deduced:- The nature of the verb is determined by the type of the preposition- The preposition introduces its complement meanwhile identifying the nature of the verb itself- Regardless of the nature or the type of the verb, what the preposition adds to meaning remains the sameThe main objective of this research work is then to offer new and pertinent assumptions concerning the role and function of the preposition “à”, meanwhile still taking into consideration former critical assumption advocated by Grévisse, Gougenheim, Guillaume, Pottier and Cadiot°. Since the main focus of this research work is to study the semantic identity of the preposition “à”, the approach has been based on an attempt to validate or refute all former semantic assumptions presented by former writers, exploring then the different aspects of the relationship between the verb and the preposition based of the corpus of LVF. The analysis of the different examples studied required also that a nominalisation test and a telicity test should be conducted. The following are the main findings:- There is no definite syntactic difference between the verb and the nominalised structure- The empirical study of LVF which seeks to distinguish the different dative cases reveals that the idea of interchangeability is not at the very basis of the meaning of the verb itself- The lexical dative does not automatically entail deletion of the GP since the idea of interchangeability is primarily expressed by the meaning of the verb itself- The preposition “à” designates both the origin and the recipient as well. It is a in fact linear retrospective movement which allows the process of interchangeability

O objetivo geral desta dissertação é traçar um panorama da evolução do dativo em -e dentro do contexto do paradigma dos demais casos morfológicos existentes no alemão e detectar prováveis fatores atuando concomitantemente na variação da (não) ocorrência desse marcador de caso. Para tanto, revisitamos o desenvolvimento do sistema de casos do alemão e descrevemos o comportamento e padrões exibidos pelos marcadores de caso de substantivos no singular e no plural. Discutimos a útil noção de declinações forte e fraca, de Grimm (1822), bem como algumas teorias sobre mudança linguística, tais como o enfraquecimento de sílabas átonas (SAPIR, 1921), o surgimento do artigo definido (PHILLIPI, 1997) e da teoria baseada no uso (BARðDAL, 2009). As questões levantadas por essas teorias podem ter contribuído com o paulatino apagamento de marcadores de caso nas línguas germânicas. Não rejeitamos nenhuma delas, haja vista que todas fornecem hipóteses plausíveis, entretanto, a mudança não ocorreu de forma homogênea em diferentes contextos e parece exibir certos padrões que podem ser explicados pela interação de diversos fatores, e não com base apenas nas grandes ideias das teorias descritas acima. Testar a hipótese dessa policausalidade requer o emprego de metodologia específica. Como o fenômeno aqui estudado é a realização vs. não realização do dativo em -e, empregamos o método de regressão logística binária, o mais adequado para descrever e testar hipóteses sobre relações entre uma variável-resposta categórica e variáveis explanatórias também categóricas e/ou contínuas (PENG; LEE; INGERSOLL, 2002). Obtivemos robusta evidência de que fatores tipológicos, fonológicos e prosódicos desempenham importante papel na variação da realização do dativo em -e e observamos que a interação de fatores tem maior poder explanatório sobre os padrões exibidos na variação do que uma análise que considere a influência de diferentes fatores de maneira isolada. A maior vantagem em aplicarmos um teste como o de regressão logística binária consiste na possibilidade de captar a existência de determinados padrões interacionais, e, portanto, podemos analisar a variação e mudança, como no exemplo do dativo em -e, de um ponto de vista multifatorial, e não limitando nosso escopo a fatores isolados, pois, em um sistema complexo como é a língua, eles parecem indissociáveis. / The main goal of this investigation is to outline an overview of the development of the dative -e within the context of the paradigm of other morphological cases existing in German and to identify factors that play a concomitant role in the variation of the (non-)occurence of the case marker. In order to perform this task, we revisited the development of the German case system and described the behaviour and patterns exhibited by the case markers of singular and plural nouns. We discussed the useful notion of strong and weak declensions such as thought of by Grimm (1822), as well as some theories on language change, as the weakening of unstressed syllables (SAPIR, 1921), the rise of the definite article (PHILLIPI, 1997) and the usage-based approach to language (BARðDAL, 2009). The questions raised within the framework of these theories might have contributed to the non-occurrence of the case marker in Germanic languages. We did not reject any of the theories, since they provide plausible hypotheses, however, the change did not occur homogeneously in different contexts and it seems to exhibit certain patterns that may be accounted for by the interaction between diverse factors and therefore not only by the general ideas mentioned above. In order to test this multicausality hypothesis, it is necessary to apply a specific methodology. Given that the phenomenon studied in this investigation is the occurrence vs. non-occurrence of the dative -e, we performed a binary logistic regression analysis, which is well suited for describing and testing hypotheses about relationships between categorical outcome variables and explanatory variables that are also categorical and/or continuous (PENG; LEE; INGERSOLL, 2002). We obtained strong evidence that typological, phonological and prosodic factors play an important role in the variation of the dative -e and we observed that the interaction between such factors can better explain the patterns exhibited in the variation than an approach that only takes into account the influence of individual factors. The advantage in performing a binary logistic regression is based on the fact that it highlights the existence of interactional factors, and therefore we can analyse the variation and change, using the example of the dative -e, from a multifactorial point of view without limiting our scope to individual factors only, since they do not seem to work individually within a complex system such as the human language.

O objetivo geral desta dissertação é traçar um panorama da evolução do dativo em -e dentro do contexto do paradigma dos demais casos morfológicos existentes no alemão e detectar prováveis fatores atuando concomitantemente na variação da (não) ocorrência desse marcador de caso. Para tanto, revisitamos o desenvolvimento do sistema de casos do alemão e descrevemos o comportamento e padrões exibidos pelos marcadores de caso de substantivos no singular e no plural. Discutimos a útil noção de declinações forte e fraca, de Grimm (1822), bem como algumas teorias sobre mudança linguística, tais como o enfraquecimento de sílabas átonas (SAPIR, 1921), o surgimento do artigo definido (PHILLIPI, 1997) e da teoria baseada no uso (BARðDAL, 2009). As questões levantadas por essas teorias podem ter contribuído com o paulatino apagamento de marcadores de caso nas línguas germânicas. Não rejeitamos nenhuma delas, haja vista que todas fornecem hipóteses plausíveis, entretanto, a mudança não ocorreu de forma homogênea em diferentes contextos e parece exibir certos padrões que podem ser explicados pela interação de diversos fatores, e não com base apenas nas grandes ideias das teorias descritas acima. Testar a hipótese dessa policausalidade requer o emprego de metodologia específica. Como o fenômeno aqui estudado é a realização vs. não realização do dativo em -e, empregamos o método de regressão logística binária, o mais adequado para descrever e testar hipóteses sobre relações entre uma variável-resposta categórica e variáveis explanatórias também categóricas e/ou contínuas (PENG; LEE; INGERSOLL, 2002). Obtivemos robusta evidência de que fatores tipológicos, fonológicos e prosódicos desempenham importante papel na variação da realização do dativo em -e e observamos que a interação de fatores tem maior poder explanatório sobre os padrões exibidos na variação do que uma análise que considere a influência de diferentes fatores de maneira isolada. A maior vantagem em aplicarmos um teste como o de regressão logística binária consiste na possibilidade de captar a existência de determinados padrões interacionais, e, portanto, podemos analisar a variação e mudança, como no exemplo do dativo em -e, de um ponto de vista multifatorial, e não limitando nosso escopo a fatores isolados, pois, em um sistema complexo como é a língua, eles parecem indissociáveis. / The main goal of this investigation is to outline an overview of the development of the dative -e within the context of the paradigm of other morphological cases existing in German and to identify factors that play a concomitant role in the variation of the (non-)occurence of the case marker. In order to perform this task, we revisited the development of the German case system and described the behaviour and patterns exhibited by the case markers of singular and plural nouns. We discussed the useful notion of strong and weak declensions such as thought of by Grimm (1822), as well as some theories on language change, as the weakening of unstressed syllables (SAPIR, 1921), the rise of the definite article (PHILLIPI, 1997) and the usage-based approach to language (BARðDAL, 2009). The questions raised within the framework of these theories might have contributed to the non-occurrence of the case marker in Germanic languages. We did not reject any of the theories, since they provide plausible hypotheses, however, the change did not occur homogeneously in different contexts and it seems to exhibit certain patterns that may be accounted for by the interaction between diverse factors and therefore not only by the general ideas mentioned above. In order to test this multicausality hypothesis, it is necessary to apply a specific methodology. Given that the phenomenon studied in this investigation is the occurrence vs. non-occurrence of the dative -e, we performed a binary logistic regression analysis, which is well suited for describing and testing hypotheses about relationships between categorical outcome variables and explanatory variables that are also categorical and/or continuous (PENG; LEE; INGERSOLL, 2002). We obtained strong evidence that typological, phonological and prosodic factors play an important role in the variation of the dative -e and we observed that the interaction between such factors can better explain the patterns exhibited in the variation than an approach that only takes into account the influence of individual factors. The advantage in performing a binary logistic regression is based on the fact that it highlights the existence of interactional factors, and therefore we can analyse the variation and change, using the example of the dative -e, from a multifactorial point of view without limiting our scope to individual factors only, since they do not seem to work individually within a complex system such as the human language.