German Syntax - Case Study Example

Lecturer: German Syntax 0 Introduction German, spoken by around 95 million people throughout the world, is the national language of Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein, and is also an official language in Switzerland and Luxemburg. In specific regions of Italy, Belgium and Denmark, German is also an official language (Fagan 1). The type of German used in textbooks and dictionaries is the Standard variety and is the variety that is taught in schools (Fagan 1). Standard German is therefore the variety used in this paper which will provide a brief discussion on German syntax in terms of word order, negation and interrogatives. 1.0 Word Order German is considered an SVO language (Fagan 146), which means that the underlying word order is Subject – Object – Verb as in 1) Ich benutzte das Werkzeug. [subj-I] [verb-used] [obj-the tool] I used the tool. (Monaghan, Gonitzke & Chater 816) Example 1 is the most common word order in German; it is a declarative sentence and has only one main clause (Weyerts, Penke, Munte, Heinze & Clahsen 216). So the verb is in second position in a sentence that is complete and can stand alone; in other words in an independent clause. Weyerts, Penke, Munte, Heinze & Clahsen claim that “ it is always a finite verb or auxiliary that appears in second position, and it only appears there in main clauses” (216). If two independent or main clauses are joined with a conjunction the word order remains as SVO in both clauses. Sentence 2 is an example of two independent clauses joined with a conjunction. 2) Ich benutzte das Werkzeug und Ich gab es [subj-I] [verb-used] [obj-the tool] [conj-and] [ subj-I] [verb-gave] [direct obj-it] ihm. [indirect object-him] I used the tool and I gave it to him. (Monaghan, Gonitzke & Chater 816) In subordinate or dependent clauses however, the word order changes to SOV and the verb follows the object, as in 3) Ich benutzte das Werkzeug das ich dir Vgab [subj-I] [verb-used] [obj-the tool] [com-that][sub-I] [obj-you] [verb-gave] I used the tool that I gave you. (Monaghan, Gonitzke & Chater 816) In sentence 3, the first or main clause follows the subject-verb-object order but because the second clause cannot stand alone and is dependent on the main clause the word order changes to subject-object-verb (Monaghan, Gonitzke & Chater 816). If however, the subordinate or dependent clause comes before the main or independent clause the word order is different again. For example: 4) Wahrend er den reflex punkt beruhrt, stellt er [while] [subj-he] [obj-the reflex point] [verb-touch] [verb-ask] [sub-he] die entsprechende frage. [object-the corresponding question] (Verstraete 616) While he touches the reflex point, he asks the corresponding question. Sentence 4 begins with a dependent clause and because this subordinate clause is in first position it is considered to be the first part of the main clause and the word order is SVO. The verb in the main clause follows the verb in the subordinate clause because it is considered the second position in the sentence (Verstraete 616). When using an infinitive verb in German the infinitive verb goes after the object, as in 5) Er hat seine Meinung geändert. [subj-he] [verb-has] [obj-his opinion] [verb inf-change] He has changed his opinion. (Monaghan, Gonitzke & Chater 816) The infinite verb in sentence 5 is ‘changed’ and has moved to the final position after the object but the finite verb ‘has’ stays in second position after the subject in main or independent clauses, which is different to English as can be seen in the translation. Another example to illustrate this ordering is 6) Pauline hat die Aufgabe gelös. [subj-Pauline] [verb-has] [obj-the task] [verb inf-solve] Pauline has solved the task. (Weyerts, Penke, Munte, Heinze & Clahsen 216) Word ordering is more complicated when using an infinite verb in dependent or subordinate clauses. The finite verb moves and follows the infinite verb after the object, as in: 7) Er kauft den Teppich da sie die alte [subj-he] [verb-buys] [obj-carpet] [comp-since] [subj-they] [obj-the old one] zerstort haben. [verb inf-destroy] [verb-have] (Monaghan, Gonitzke & Chater 816) He buys the carpet since they have destroyed the old one. Sentence 7 illustrates how instead of the finite verb being in second position and the infinite verb being in last position as seen in sentence 6, both verbs move and follow the object but the infinite verb precedes the finite verb (Monaghan, Gonitzke & Chater 816). Another example of this ordering is 8) Der Lehrer bemerkte, daß Pauline die Aufgabe [subj-the teacher] [verb-realized] [comp-that] [subj-Pauline] [obj-the task] gelöst hat [verb inf-solve] [verb-has] (Weyerts, Penke, Munte, Heinze & Clahsen 216) The teacher realized that Pauline has solved the task. Sentence 8 includes a subject of the subordinate clause and further illustrates how the infinite verb follows the object and the finite verb follows the infinite verb. The word ordering of this sentence is therefore subject-verb-object-complement-subject-object-verb infinite-verb finite. In some sentences the word ordering is inverted and the topic or focus of the sentence can be placed in first position, as in 9) Die Aufgabe hat Pauline gelöst. [obj-the task] [verb-has] [subj-Pauline] [verb inf-solve] Pauline has solved the task. (Weyerts, Penke, Munte, Heinze & Clahsen 216) In sentence 9 ‘the task’ is the focus of the topic and is placed in first position followed by the finite verb, the subject and last the infinite verb. 2.0 Negation Negation in German can be shown with the word ‘nicht’. For example, the positive sentence 10) Fritz ist nach Luckenbach gefahren [subj-Fritz] [verb-did] [obj-to Luckenbach] [verb inf-go] Fritz went to Luckenbach. becomes 11) Fritz ist nicht nach Luckenbach gefahren [subj-Fritz] [verb-did] [neg-nicht] [obj-to Luckenbach] [verb inf-go] Fritz did not go to Luckenbach. (Schwarz & Bhatt 7) In sentence 11 the negative marker ‘nicht’ follows the finite verb. If the same word order is used for the following sentence 12) Fritz hat Frage 3 beantwortet [subj-Fritz] [verb-has] [obj-question 3] [verb inf-answer] Fritz answered question 3. (Schwarz & Bhatt 7) The result would be 13) *Fritz hat nicht Frage 3 beantwortet. [subj-Fritz] [verb-has] [neg-nicht] [obj-question 3] [verb inf-answer] Fritz did not answer question 3. German speakers however would consider sentence 13 as ungrammatical. They would place the negative marker after the object and before the infinite verb, as in 14) Fritz hat Frage 3 nicht beantwortet. [subj-Fritz] [verb-has] [obj-question 3] [neg-nicht] [verb inf-answer] Fritz did not answer question 3. (Schwarz & Bhatt 9) The reason for this according to Schwarz and Bhatt (9) is that the object is a definite noun phrase and therefore the negative marker is required to follow it. If on the other hand the object is an indefinite noun phrase then a different negative marker is used, as in 15a) Fritz kann eine Fremdsprache. [sub-Fritz] [verb-knows] [obj-foreign language] Fritz knows a foreign language. (Schwarz & Bhatt 8) 15b) Fritz kann keine Fremdsprache. [sub-Fritz] [verb-knows] [neg-keine] [obj-foreign language] Fritz doesn’t know a foreign language. (Schwarz & Bhatt 9) In sentence 15b the negative marker is ‘keine’ because the object ‘a foreign language’ is indefinite. ‘Keine’ remains in the same position as ‘nicht’ and follows the verb and precedes the object. Another negative used in German is ‘weder … noch’ which means ‘neither…nor’ and each part goes before each object, as in 16) Fritz hat weder Frage 3 noch Frage 4 [subj-fritz] [verb-has] [neg-neither][object-question 3] [neg-nor] [object-question 4] beantwortet. [verb inf- answer] Fritz answered neither question 3 nor question 4. (Schwarz & Bhatt 9) Negative questions take the following word order; 17a) Hat Fritz nicht Frage 3 beantwortet? [quest-has] [subj-Fritz] [neg-nicht] [ obj-question 3] [verb inf.answer] Didn’t Fritz answer question 3? 17b) Kann Fritz nicht eine Fremdsprache? [quest-knnows] [subj-Fritz] [neg-nicht] [obj-a foreign language] Doesn’t Fritz know a foreign language? 17c) Hat Fritz nicht Frage 3 oder Frage 4 [quest-did] [subj-Fritz] [neg-nicht] [obj-question 3] [conj-or] [obj-question 4] beantwortet? [verb inf.answer] Didn’t Fritz answer question 3 or question 4? (Schwarz & Bhatt 9) 17d) Ich habe nicht das Buch gelesen sondern die Zeitung [subj-I] [verb-have][neg-nicht][obj-the book][verb inf-read][conj-but][obj-the newspaper] I have read not the book but the newspaper. (Wiltschko 1) Sentences 17a-d all use the ‘nicht’ form to show negation and in all four examples it is placed between the subject and the object no matter whether the object noun phrase is definite or indefinite. When the negative is used within interrogative sentences therefore, the form does not change from ‘nicht’. 3.0 Interrogatives Questions in German are of two main types as in English. One type is questions that require a yes or no answer (yes-no questions) and those that require more than a yes or no answer in terms of further information (wh-questions) (Collins 182). 3.1 Yes-no questions In questions that ask for a yes-no answer the word order in German is VSO; in other words the subject and verb change places in the same way as found in English. Sentence 18 provides a declarative sentence and sentence 19 illustrates the interrogative version of the same sentence. 18) Sie hat in die Stadt [subj-you] [verb-go] [prep phrase-in the city] You are going into the city. 19) Gehen Si) in die Stadt? [verb-go] [subj-you] [prep phrase-in the city] Are you going into the city? (Collins 183) 4.2 Wh-questions There are a number of wh-pronouns in German that take different forms depending on the case assigned to them. The interrogative pronouns ‘wer’ ‘who’ and ‘was’ ‘what’, are only used in the singular form. The following chart shows the forms used in different case. Case People Things Nominative (subject of the verb) wer ‘who’ was ‘what’ Accusative (direct object of the verb) wen ‘whom’ was ‘what’ Genitive (possessive – something belongs to someone) wessen ‘those’ Dative (indirect object) wem ‘whom’ (Adapted from Collins German Grammar 89) The following sentence provides an example of the wh-pronoun in accusative case. 20) Wer hat Hans beleidigit? [wh-pronoun-who] [verb-has] [subj-Hans] [verb inf-insult] Who did Hans insult? (Gartner 22) The wh-pronoun in sentence 20 is the direct object of the sentence and is moved to front position. These wh-pronouns are placed at the beginning of the sentence in direct questions whether they represent the object or the subject. (Collins German Grammar 89). In indirect questions they are placed at the beginning of the subordinate clause, as in 21) lch weiB nicht, wer es gemacht hat. [subj-I] [verb-know] [neg] [wh-pron-nom] [obj-it] [verb inf-done] [verb-has] I dont know who did it. (Collins 183) Other question words also take initial position within an interrogative sentence. Sentence 22 illustrates the way in which the interrogative adverb ‘wann’ meaning ‘when’ is placed in first position. 22) Wann hat sie Geburtstag? [wh-when] [verb-has] [subj-she] [obj-birthday] ‘When is her birthday? (Fagan 132) In sentence 22 the interrogative adverb meaning ‘when’ is in first position with the verb-subject-object order (VSO) following. The declarative form of this sentence would be SVO as in 19) Sie hat Geburtstag [subj-she] [verb-has] [obj-birthday] She has a birthday. In interrogatives therefore, the subject and verb invert and change places. 5.0 Conclusion This paper has discussed the word order, negation and interrogatives of German by providing examples within each area. Although the underlying word order of German is said to be SVO there are many instances whereby this is not the case and in fact German allows the verb to be in first, middle or final position in a sentence depending on whether the clause is independent or subordinate and whether the verb is finite or infinite. Negation is generally indicated by adding ‘nicht’ but with a definite article the ‘kein’ forms are used instead. Interrogative sentences are similar to English in terms of word order in yes-no questions but differ in some instances with wh-questions. Works cited Collin Easy Learning German Grammar, Glasgow: Harper Collins Publishers. 2007. Web. 25 September, 2010. Fagan, Sarah M.B. German: A Linguistic Introduction. UK: Cambridge University Press. 2009. Web. 26 September, 2010. Gartner, Hans-Martin, “More on the Indefinite-interrogative Affinity: The View from Embedding Non-finite Interrogatives”, Linguistic Typology, 13 (2009): 1-37. Web. 26 September, 2010. Monaghan, Padraic, Gonitzke, Markus & Chater, Nick. “Two Wrongs Make a Right: Learnability and Word Order Consistency”. In Alterman, Richard & Kirsch, David eds. Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. July 31 – August, 2003. Boston, Massuachusetts, USA: Cognitive Science Society. 2003: 816-827. Web. 23 September, 2010. Schwarz, Bernhard & Bhatt, Rajesh. “Light Negation and Polarity”. In Zanuttini, Raffaella, Campos, Hector, Herburger, Elena and Portner,Paul, H. eds., Cross-Linguistic Research in Syntax and Semantics: Negation, Tense and Clausal Architecture, 175-198, Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. Web, 23, September, 2010. Verstraete, Jean-Christophe, “Two Types of Coordination in Clasue Combining, Lingua 115 (2005): 611-626. Web. 25 September, 2010. Weyerts, Helga, Penke, Martina, Munte, Thomas, F., Heinze, Hans-Jochen & Clahsen, Harald. “Word Order in Sentence Processing: An Experimental Study of Verb Placement in German”, Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 31.3, (2002): 211-268. Wiltschko, Martina. “C-selection is Unique”. In: Baumer, D., Montero, D. and Scanlon, M. eds. Proceedings of the 25th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL 2006) Cascadilla Read More