This article presents a constructional analysis of the uses of left-peripheral so in Early New High German. This element is known as a resumptive element, which takes up an adverbial clause and integrates it into a main clause. While this seems a valid analysis for constructions with preposed adverbial clauses, it is not compatible when so is preceded by adverbs or main clauses.

First, a quantitatively informed picture is presented. A network is proposed that centers around a prototype in which so connects a protasis and apodosis when so follows verb-final and verb-initial clauses. Second, it is argued that so following verb-second clauses is loosely connected to this network. Finally, it is considered whether and to what degree the use of so following adverbs should be analyzed in the same way as so following adverbial clauses. It is argued that patterns with adverbs are not in paradigmatic relation with adverbial clauses. Moreover, their function is different, as they are backward-oriented and take up earlier constituents.

This article presents a description of German schon and noch as nontemporal scalar focus operators. Both items operate in a scalar model of sufficiency and signal that the focus value yields a more informative proposition than all alternatives under consideration; that is, they are special cases of scalar additives. Where the two expressions differ is in the complementary perspectives they evoke. Schon relates to higher alternatives. Noch relates to lower alternatives, but brings about an inverse (i.e., antonymically ordered) scalar model. The use of schon and noch as scalar sufficiency operators is traced back to an amalgamation of two other uses of the same items. The descriptive findings contribute to the advancement of our cross-linguistic understanding of scalar focus operators and raise fundamental questions pertaining to the typological and theoretical status of scale reversal phenomena.*