Complex predicates in German resultative constructions

Publikation: Beiträge in ZeitschriftenZeitschriftenaufsätzeForschungbegutachtet

Authors

  • Michael Richter

This paper proposes a syntactic solution for resultative constructions in German like etwas klein schneiden, etwas rot färben, etwas rund feilen or sich gesund schlafen. The proposal is based on the assumption that the argument frame of certain verbs can be extended by an extraordinary clause, i.e. a pseudo-complement with a predicate-argument structure, known in the literature as Small Clause. The predicate is joined with the verb in the matrix sentence by predicate raising, and both form a complex predicate; the embedded clause is unioned with the matrix clause ("Clause Union"). This analysis fits in with the analysis of coherent sentences, and, indeed, resultatives do exhibit essential properties of coherence in the sense of Bech (1983). I thus interpret resultative constructions as a product of predicate raising, although this term can also be understood in a representational/non-transformational sense. This paper discusses some constructions that seem to have no satisfactory explanation in small-clause approaches, for example the suppression of the object of the verb in a sentence like er trinkt den Weinkeller leer. Here den Weinkeller is not the object of the verb. The present analysis proposes that the object variable in the semantic representation stays empty for semantic reasons, while in er schneidet das Gemüse klein there are no semantic reasons to prevent das Gemüse being the object of the verb. As theoretical framework I use the transformational grammar Semantic Syntax (Seuren 1996), although the analysis should also be compatible with non-transformational approaches like HPSG or categorial grammars.

OriginalspracheEnglisch
ZeitschriftDeutsche Sprache
Jahrgang30
Ausgabenummer3
Seiten (von - bis)237-251
Anzahl der Seiten15
ISSN0340-9341
PublikationsstatusErschienen - 2002

Zuletzt angesehen

Forschende

  1. Tobias Remschel

Publikationen

  1. The relation of flow-experience and physiological arousal under stress - can u shape it?
  2. Priority effects of time of arrival of plant functional groups override sowing interval or density effects
  3. Consular Assistance: Rights, Remedies, and Responsibility Comments on the ICJ's Judgment in the LaGrand Case
  4. Customer Orientation of Service Employees—Toward a Conceptual Framework of a Key Relationship Marketing Construct
  5. Early-Career Researchers’ Perceptions of the Prevalence of Questionable Research Practices, Potential Causes, and Open Science
  6. Heterogenität
  7. Ownership Patterns and Enterprise Groups in German Structural Business Statistics
  8. Analysis of the forming behaviour of in-situ drawn sandwich sheets
  9. The mediating role of entrepreneurial orientation in the task-environment-performance relationship
  10. Progress and challenge for magnesium alloys as biomaterials
  11. Nutzen – Nutzung - Nutzer_innen
  12. Extended Income Dynamics
  13. Sachstrukturiertes Üben
  14. Conduct or Construct Ourselves?
  15. Optical flow fields and visual attention in car driving
  16. The “distinctiveness of cities” and distinctions in cities
  17. "Now I like it".
  18. Tree diversity promotes generalist herbivore community patterns in a young subtropical forest experiment
  19. Cultural influences on social feedback processing of character traits
  20. Drivers of intraspecific trait variation of grass and forb species in German meadows and pastures
  21. Antibiotics in the Aquatic Environment
  22. Evaluating the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of web-based indicated prevention of major depression
  23. The vital role of business processes for a business model
  24. Warum Diderot?
  25. Preserving Soils for Life
  26. Still some way to go
  27. Participation of Adolescents in the Development of a Smartphone App-based Intervention to Promote the Health Literacy
  28. § 26