Internal Noun Phrase Structure in Modern Standard German

Tim Jewell

LING 508

California State University, Fullerton

1. Introduction and Typology of German

German, a member of the Indo-European language family known

as Germanic, exhibits a grammatical structure that is analogous

to many other extant Germanic languages, resembling its close

relatives English and Dutch in many fundamental ways (König & van

der Auwera 1994).

According to the World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS),

the modern standard German language, one of 24 official languages

of the European Union (Europa.eu) and the official language of

seven European nations (Sanders 2010), is spoken in Germany by

approximately 75 million native speakers in addition to nearly 28

million non-native speakers. Standard German is relatively young,

tracing its origins to the translation of the Latin Bible into

written German by Martin Luther in 1522. Modern Standarddeutsch

‘Standard German’ (often known colloquially as Hochdeutsch ‘High

German’) was constructed from medieval Old High German dialects

of the southern regions of what is now contemporary Germany and

northern Italy, which had begun to diverge and develop

independently of the Low German tongues that gradually evolved

into the modern Plattdeutsch ‘Low German’ dialects in contemporary

northern Germany (Sanders 2010). Thus, the Noun Phrase structure

of Standarddeutsch (which will hereafter be referred to simply as

German) follows the typology of a typical Germanic language

(Sanders 2010).

One striking feature of German is its simultaneous

employment of both SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) and SOV (Subject-

Object-Verb) syntactical structures based on the placement and

appearance of different types of verbs as well as the semantic

contents of a given sentence. Many theories exist as to the

typological categories into which German should be assigned as a

result of this characteristic. One of the earliest typological

studies of German arose from the work of Jean Forquet, who in

1938 concluded that two theoretical points must be taken into

account when assessing German’s word order: 1. The central knot or decisive element of the German

sentence is the verb.

2. The description of positions concerns not just phrases or

groups of words or elements, but clauses as wholes.

(Scaglione 1981)

In short, it is necessary to examine all the constituents of

a German sentence not as individual units but as interconnected

with other constituents in a German sentence, with focus

primarily upon the verbal elements and their relation to other

aspects of the sentence. Fourquet’s research has been further

implemented through studies conducted by other modern typologists

such as Paul J. Hopper, whose 1975 study gave some credence to

Fourquet’s theory in its postulation that the collective body of

Germanic languages, termed Germanisch, evolved from an intermediary

stage between the Indo-Germanic SOV order and the modern SVO

order in modern Germanic languages (Scaglione 1981). Also

relevant in this field is the typological research conducted by

Winfred P. Lehmann and Theo Venneman, whose vital research

established a systematic foundation for further elaborations on

theories of German word order (and is too vast to cover in the

scope of this paper, see Scaglione 1981 for detailed accounts of

these and other historical and typological forays into the study

of German word order).

German’s variable word order is distinctly observable in its

surface constituents. In (1), a simple declarative sentence, SVO

is clearly visible:

(1) Ich spiele gern Fuβball

I play-3PS pref football

‘I like to play soccer’

(source: personal knowledge)

The subject, ich, appears at the beginning of the sentence,

the verb (spielen in the third-person singular (3PS) form) follows

directly thereafter, and the object phrase (consisting of an

adverbial particle denoting preference/enjoyment as well as the

German word for the international sport known variously as

‘football’ and ‘soccer’) appears after the subject and verb; all

of these components form an emblematic SVO sentence. However, in

complex and/or compound phrases/sentences in German, a noticeable

difference in word order evident, as seen in a noun phrase with a

simple relative clause (2):

(2) Die Ärtztin, deren Sohn in meiner

Klasse ist

The-FEM doctor-FEM whose-GEN son in my-GEN class

be-3PS

‘The (female) doctor, whose son is in my class’

(Donaldson 2007)

Though the first segment of the NP is unremarkable in its

typical German typology (consisting merely of the feminine

article die, which will be discussed later in this paper, and a

noun with an ending denoting female gender of the common noun

Ärtzt ‘doctor’), the relative clause exhibits characteristics

quite divergent from the SVO standard. The relative clause, which

immediately follows the comma (the grammatical rules of which

will also later be discussed), begins with the genitive (or

possessive) pronoun deren, indicating that following clause

relates to the subject. Then, the noun Sohn ‘son’ follows the

genitive pronoun, indicating that it bears the role of possessed

object in its genitive relationship to die Ärtztin. The variation in

word order becomes noticeable when the verb ist ‘is’ (the third-

person-singular form of the verb sein ‘to be) does not appear

after Sohn, where it would typically stand in a simple

declarative SVO sentence. Instead, ist follows the locative phrase

in meiner Klasse ‘in my class’, which would normally act as a typical

object phrase and be placed at the end of the phrase. However,

because of the semantic relationship of the relative clause to

the rest of the NP as a modifier of the subject, the word order

is changed and the verb is placed in the final position of the

relative clause. Many other instances of this syntactic shift

will be explored in this paper.

2. Heads of Noun Phrases

Modern German noun phrases in modern German can utilize a

variety of options for the ‘head’ category; nouns (both proper

and common), pronouns, infinitive verbs, gerunds, and many others

may occur as noun phrase heads. German also exhibits the use of

noun phrases with no visible (zero) head, noted in (3) (which is

often shouted at World Cup matches during times of great

excitement):

(3) Wer nicht hüpft, der ist kein

Deutscher

Who NEG bounce-3PS, that be-3PS NEG German-person

‘(He/She) who doesn’t hop is not a German’

(source: personal knowledge)

The zero head ostensibly refers to a general audience (in

this case, most likely, those in a crowd refusing to jump after

the German national team has scored a goal) indicated primarily

by the pronoun wer ‘who’, omitting the use of a pronoun to

specify those to whom are being referred. Heads can also stand

alone in German sentences, often when a speaker uses only a

proper noun or pronoun as the subject of the sentence, as

illustrated in (4):

(4) Er schickte mir die Titel weiterer

deutscher Romane

He give-PST me-OBJ the-FEM title further German-ADJ

novel-PL

‘He sent me the title of more German novels’

(Hammer 1983)

In (4), er ‘he’ is the only functioning part of the NP that

precedes the verb phrase schickte mir ‘sent me’, and in a typical

German sentence, no further grammatical items are required for

the noun phrase to be considered grammatical. Note also that all

nouns in German are capitalized, regardless of being general or

proper nouns, except when declined as adjectives, such as in the

case of the word deutscher ‘German (ADJ)’ in (4).

In a German NP, modifiers such as adjectives and adverbs

almost always precede the head, as seen in (5):

(5) Der schöne, luftige Nachmittag

The-MASC beautiful-ADJ airy-ADJ after-midday

‘The beautiful, breezy afternoon’

(source: informant)

The two adjectives in (5), schöne ‘beautiful’ and luftige

‘breezy’ must precede the head of the NP, Nachmittag ‘afternoon’

in order to convey the information that the head of the NP is

being modified. More examples of the appearance of modifiers

before an NP head (as well as their paradigms of declension) will

be provided in section 7.

3. German Definite Articles: Der, Die, and Das

German has three articles that are generally required to

precede almost every noun, with the exception of proper nouns and

some loanwords: der, die, and das. Though these articles indicate

an inherent gender, each article is not necessarily logically

coherent in describing the gender of the noun to which it

adheres. However, there are loose grammatical regulations in

German that govern the use of the articles.

In general, the articles align with the following genders:

Der: masculine

Die: feminine/plural

Das: neuter

Note that die is utilized as both a feminine and plural

article, preceding any instances of groups of two or more;

furthermore, note that any noun that describes a prototypically

male being, occupation or position, such as der Ärtzt ‘doctor’ or

der Löwe ‘lion’, must be distinguished as female by the suffix –in

and use of the feminine article die (as in the cases of nouns

such as die Ärtztin ‘female doctor’ and die Löwin ‘lioness’).

Each article may cohere or contrast with the gender of the

noun that it precedes. Die Mutter ‘the (FEM) mother’ and der Mann

‘the (MASC) man’ illustrate this concept well, but there are many

exceptions to this rule, such as in the example of das Mädchen

‘the young woman’ and die Kindheit ‘childhood’, which have no

logical connection to the gendered connotations of their

articles. There are, however, observable patterns and regulations

which govern the use of each article in describing an object

without the additional inference of gender, detailed below

(Hammer 1983). The following list is far from exhaustive and

denotes only some common categories for the use of each article.

Furthermore, it is important to note that the examples provided

below only represent tendencies of article usage, and therefore,

such categories are often considered arbitrary due to the

existence of exceptions to each category (see Lederer 1969 for a

thorough discussion of such exceptions).

I. Der

a. instruments or inanimate objects (der Computer ‘the

computer’)

b. days, seasons, compass points (der Sonntag ‘Sunday’; der

Monat ‘month’)

c. stones and minerals (der Stein ‘stone/rock’; der Basalt

‘basalt’)

II. Die

a. German rivers (die Donau ‘the Donau’; die Ruhr ‘the Ruhr’)

b. most trees and many flowers (die Blume ‘the flower’)

c. nouns with suffixes –ei/–heit/–keit/–schaft/–ung (die

Ehrlichkeit ‘honesty’; die Freundschaft ‘friendship’)

III. Das

a. Names of cities/towns/continents (das Paris, das Afrika)

b. Collective nouns

c. Nouns derived from –chen/–lein (das Mädchen ‘young

woman’; das Bäumchen ‘sapling’)

Another important rule of gender to note is that compound

nouns identify with the gender of the last word in the compound;

thus, a word such as das Seebad ‘seaside resort’ is assigned the

gender of das bad (translated, in this case, roughly into the

English word ‘spa’) rather than die see ‘sea, ocean’.

4. German Declension and Indefinite Articles

German, similar to other Germanic languages like Dutch,

exhibits a complex system of case markings and inflections that

allow relatively free word order and syntactical movement due to

the marking of the noun with one of four cases (the German

designations of which are also provided):

I. Nominative (which marks the subject of the sentence)

(Nominativ/Werfall)

II. Genitive (which marks the direct object) (Genitiv/Wesfall)

III. Dative (which marks possession) (Dativ/Wemfall)

IV. Accusative (which marks the indirect object)

(Akkusativ/Wenfall)

Because of the various endings that must be assigned to a

noun depending on its syntactic and semantic function within the

sentence, German speakers may utilize a somewhat unrestricted

word order. However the German language does follow a set of

conventions and regulations regarding word order and is still

primarily assigned to the SVO/SOV typology, tending in most cases

towards SOV (König & van der Auwera 1994).

German exhibits a specific paradigm for each type of

declesion depending on the grammatical and syntactic function of

the word; within the bounds of this paper, it is best to

illustrate these paradigms through the various inflections of the

German indefinite article, ein (which translates into the English

‘one’ or equivalent indefinite article ‘a/an’). Provided below is

a brief overview of the German declension system in relation to

the indefinite article ein, when it precedes a noun phrase head

and its modifiers:

For an application of this paradigm, refer to the sentences

below, involving the singular masculine der Hund:

Nominativ: ein Hund a dog

Akkusativ: der Mann schlug einen Hund the man hit a dog

Genitiv: der Knochen eines Hundes the bone of a dog

Dativ: der Mann gab den Knochen zu einem Hund the man gave the

bone to the dog

Each instance of der Hund appears with a corresponding

indefinite article and, in the case of the Genitiv declension,

inflection on Hund to indicate its grammatical function. Thus,

because of the unambiguous grammatical function marked by each

specific declension (which also applies to corresponding forms in

the declension of the definite articles), German has relatively

free word order. Consider the sentence einen Hund schlug der Mann; it

appears that, because Hund and Mann have switched places, the dog

is now hitting the man. However, because of the articles assigned

to each noun, einen Hund (Akkusativ) and der Mann (Nominativ), the

sentence retains the same meaning as the previous sentence

provided as an example for the Akkusativ declension.

5. Plurality

German words fall into several categories of pluralization

depending on their form and, in some cases, declension (Hammer

1983). Also, regardless of the original gender of the singular

noun, all German nouns utilize the feminine definite article die

in their plural forms. Note that some nouns do not take any

plural ending or undergo any change requiring the umlaut (the

diacritic above ä, ö, and ü), including masculine and neuter

nouns ending in –el/–en/–er (das Fenster ‘the window’), diminutives

ending in –chen/–lein (das Büchlein ‘booklet’), and neuter nouns

preceded by Ge- and followed by –e (Gebäude ‘building’)

(Donaldson 2007). Aside from such exception, the following

categories contain the most common types of pluralization of

German nouns (adapted from Donaldson 2007):

I. Umlaut

a. der Bogen ‘arch’ die Bögen ‘the arches’

II. Umlaut + -e

a. das Baum ‘tree’ die Bäume ‘the trees’

III. Umlaut + -er

a. der Gott ‘the god’ die Götter ‘the gods’

IV. Suffix –n or –en

a. das Auge ‘the eye’ die Augen ‘the eyes’

In addition to these categories, there are a variety of

German words to which only an –e is added to denote

pluralization, such as das Haar ‘hair’ (which becomes die Haare) and

das Tier ‘the animal’ (which becomes die Tiere). Furthermore,

loanwords (particularly those from English and French) generally

take an –s suffix, such as das Handy ‘mobile phone’ (which becomes

die Handys) and das Restaurant ‘the restaurant’ (which becomes die

Restaurants).

6. Pronouns

6.1. Singular Pronouns

German pronouns are morphologically marked depending on

their grammatical function within the sentence and are affected

by their syntactic functions regarding case and plurality. For

example, the singular Nominativ (subject) pronouns appear as

follows:

First-person singular (1PS): ich

Second-person singular (2PS): du/Sie

Third-person singular (3PS): er/es/sie

Note the corresponding changes in the pronouns when in the

Akkusativ (direct object) form:

1PS: mich

2PS: dich/Sie

3PS: ihn/es/sie

Not all of the pronouns have changed, but ich ‘I’ becomes

mich ‘me’, du ‘you (SUBJ)’ becomes dich ‘you’ (OBJ), and er ‘he’

becomes ihn ‘him’ (though neither of the other two 3PS pronouns

are marked by the change in syntactical function).

Furthermore, the pronouns become even more marked in the

Genitiv (possessive) form:

1PS: meiner

2PS: deiner/Ihrer

3PS: seiner/seiner/ihrer

Each pronoun changes form in order to indicate the role of

possession in the sentence. For example, if a speaker wishes to

say ‘I have a headache’, he or she would say Ich habe Kopfschmerzen

(which literally translates to ‘I have head-pains’); however, the

speaker could also indicate the same meaning by saying mein Kopf

tut weh (literally ‘my head does woe’), emphasizing the speaker’s

possession of his or her own head pains by switching from ich

(Nominativ) to mein (Genitiv).

Lastly, the Dativ (indirect object) form causes the pronouns

to change once more:

1PS: mir

2PS: dir/Ihnen

3PS: ihm/ihm/ihr

Note the use of a Dativ pronoun alongside other singular

pronouns in (6):

(6) Er gab mir seine Lieblingsfuβball.

He give-3PS me-DAT his-GEN favorite-football

‘He gave me his favorite soccer ball’

(source: personal knowledge)

Each of the pronouns inhabits a different syntactical role:

er acts as the subject/agent of the sentence, and appears in the

Nominativ form enacting the verb gab ‘gave’; mir acts as the

indirect object/benefactor of the agent’s action, and appears in

the Dativ form; and seine indicates the agent’s possession of the

direct object, Lieblingsfuβball, appearing in the Genitiv form. Note

that the form of the Genitiv pronoun varies slightly depending on

further case marking regulations and follows declension rules

similar to those of the indefinite article (see section 4).

Lastly, two forms exist for each of the second-personal

singular pronouns because German speakers recognize a difference

in formality between the du form, which is considered personal

and intimate (to be used between close friends and family

members), and the Sie form, which is considered formal and

professional (to be used between colleagues and when speaking to

those of a higher rank or social status). In this sense, the

formal Sie causes the sentence to agree in case with the plural

sie ‘they’, detailed in section 6.2.

6.2. Plural Pronouns

Pronouns are further morphologically marked by plurality,

and an entirely different set of pronouns must be utilized in the

abovementioned categories when referring to a plurality of

subjects. The pronouns required of each of the four cases are

provided below in first-person plural (1PP ‘we’), second-person

plural (2PP ‘you all’, which is also used as the formal style of

address in German), and third-person plural (3PP ‘they’):

Nominativ: wir, ihr/Sie, sie

Akkusativ: uns, euch/Sie, sie

Genitiv: unser, euer/Ihrer, ihrer

Dativ: uns, euch/Ihnen, ihnen

As in the singular form, the forms indicated by the Genitiv

are also subject to declension regulations. Note the variation in

the form of the third-person plural in the Genitiv construction in

(7):

(7) Sie gaben uns ihre Gründe.

They give-PST-PL us their-GEN reason-PL

‘They gave us their reasons’

(source: personal knowledge)

Rather than ihrer, as detailed in the list above, ihrer is

marked by case and gender as ihre in order to be in agreement with

the plural direct object Gründe ‘reasons’. Note that, because of

the specific changes to each pronoun, word order is relatively

free; it is plausible, in German, to restate the example as Ihre

Gründe gaben sie uns and maintain the same meaning because of the

complex markings of the pronouns (though word order, as

previously stated, follows many conventions that prevent a

completely free use of morphology and declension in structuring

German sentences; see Scaglione 1981).

7. Modifiers

Modifiers in a German noun phrase fall into three

categories: strong inflection, weak inflection, and mixed

inflection, all of which will be explained briefly in the

following sections. For a full treatment of these inflectional

paradigms, refer to König & van der Auwera 1994.

7.1. Adjectives

In German, adjectives that modify the head of the noun

phrase generally precede the head, as seen in (8):

(8) Das schöne Mädchen

lächelte mich an.

The-NEUT beautiful-ADJ young-woman smile-PST me-ACC at

‘The beautiful young woman smiled at me’

(source: informant)

The modifier schöne ‘beautiful’ (from the word schön)

precedes the head of the noun phrase, Mädchen, and also follows

the regulations of weak inflection, which occurs in the case of a

modifier preceded by a definite article (as opposed to the case

of strong inflection, which occurs when a modifier is not preceded

by a definite article, as in the example schwarzer Tee ‘black

tea’). Not only is schöne inflected for gender (neuter), it is

also inflected for the Nominativ case, and all modifiers must be

regulated by both categories. Furthermore, there is also a

category of mixed inflection, which is observed when the head is

preceded by an indefinite article or possessive adjectives, which

are detailed in section 7.2.

7.2. Possessive ‘Adjectives’

Possessive ‘adjectives’, which include the Genitiv pronouns

detailed in 6.1 and 6.2, generally precede the noun phrase head

as well, as in (9):

(9) Meine Leidenschaft ist grenzenlos.

My-GEN passion be-3PS boundless

‘My passion is limitless’

(source: informant)

Meine, which follows the regulations of mixed inflection, agrees

with Leidenschaft ‘passion’ in both the Nominativ case and feminine

gender, which must be observed for the case and gender of all

possessive adjectives. Observe (10) for another manifestation of

these regulations:

(10) Das Ausmaβ eurer Ignoranz ist

einmalig.

The-NEUT extent your-GEN ignorance be-3PS unique

‘The extent of your ignorance is unparalleled’

(source: informant)

Though the Genitiv pronoun eurer appears in the syntactical

equivalent of a prepositional phrase in English, it must be

morphologically marked by the Genitiv and feminine gender because

it describes the ‘possession’ of Ignoranz ‘ignorance’ by Ausmaβ

‘extent’.

7.3. Demonstrative ‘Adjectives’

Like almost all German modifiers, demonstrative ‘adjectives’

also precede the head of the noun phrase and, similarly to other

adjectives, must follow regulations of case and gender morphology

depending on the head they modify. Observe (11) and (12) for

further illustrations of this principle:

(11) Dessen Ausreden ziehen

schon lange nicht mehr.

That-guy-over-there-GEN excuses remove-INF yet long-

ADJ NEG more

‘His excuses haven’t been working for a long time now’

(source: informant)

(12) Habt ihr schon diese Wolken

gesehen?

Have-2PP you-PL already these-DEM clouds see-PastPart

‘Have you already seen these clouds?’

(source: informant)

In (11), the demonstrative adjective dessen is marked by the

Genitiv as well as the masculine gender to indicate that the

subject being referred to is male; this sentence would be used as

a method of indicating a person nearby in a sense of spatial

deixis (hence the gloss of dessen into ‘that-guy-over-there’, as

the person to whom the reference is directed is likely not within

the immediate spatial scope of the conversation). In (12), the

demonstrative pronoun diese refers to the plural object Wolken

‘clouds’.

7.4. Preferred Modifier Order

Though there is no strictly governed order in which

modifiers must appear before the head of a noun phrase, there are

two conventions that dictate the order of multiple modifiers

before the head.

First, in an instance wherein a quantifier appears before

the head, quantifiers are generally placed before any other

modifiers. This is the case in (13):

(13) diese vielen, schöneren,

teureren und nassen Kleider

these-DEM many-more, beautiful-COMP, expensive-COMP, and

wet-ADJ clothes

‘I have purchased many more nice, expensive, and moist

clothes’

(source:

informant)

The quantifier vielen ‘many’ precedes the three other

modifiers (the comparative constructions schöneren ‘more

beautiful’, teureren ‘more expensive’, and adjective nassen ‘wet’)

that precede Kleider ‘clothes’, the head of the noun phrase (which

begins with the demonstrative diese ‘these’).

Furthermore, the order of modifiers is described by the

theoretical framework embodied in the Gesetz der wachsenden Glieder

‘law of growing elements’, also known as the ‘Heaviness

Hierarchy’. This theory states that “…the longer and more

internally complex the prototype of a syntactic class, the later

it appears in the sequence of elements” (König & van der Auwera

1994). (14) illustrates one manifestation of this ordering

system:

(14) Ein kluges Kind, reicher Eltern, mit

blauen Augen, das viel

A bright-ADJ child, rich-GEN parent-PL, with blue-

ADJ eye-PL, that-REL much

weint

cry-3PS

‘A bright child of rich parents with blue eyes who cries

often’

(König & van der

Auwera 1994)

The head of the noun phrase, Kind ‘child’, is first modified

by the adjective kluges ‘bright’, which predictably precedes the

head (as well as follows the indefinite article ein). The further

modifiers within the noun phrase follow the structure outlined in

the ‘Heaviness Hierarchy’ (whose characteristics will not be

fully explored in this paper). First, another noun phrase appears

(reicher Eltern ‘of rich parents), which consists only of an

inflected adjective and a plural noun; second, a prepositional

phrase (mit blauen Augen ‘with blue eyes) consisting of a

preposition, an inflected adjective, and a plural noun; and

third, a relative clause (das viel weint ‘who cries often’)

consisting of a relative pronoun, an adverb, and a verb acting

within the relative clausal framework to describe the head. Note

the increasing complexity of each modifying phrase and their

relative distance from the head.

8. Relative Clauses

In German, relative clauses generally follow the primary

head of the noun phrase and, as is the case for all individual

clauses in German sentences, divided from the rest of the clauses

by commas. As mentioned before, relative clauses are delineated

not only by commas but also by the use of several relative

pronouns whose form is dependent on the gender and case of the

head. Furthermore, relative pronouns exhibit the SOV word order

of complex clauses, such as in (15):

(15) Die Hausaufgaben, die du schon gestern hättest

machen sollen

The-PL homework, that-REL you already yesterday have-SUBJ

do-INF should-INF

‘The homework that you should have already done

yesterday’

(so

urce: informant)

The head of the noun phrase, Hausaufgabe ‘homework’, is

further described by the relative clause signaled by the relative

pronoun die, which is used in this case to mean ‘that’ rather

than to indicate a feminine/plural article; note that the verbs

within the relative clause (hättest ‘have (present perfect)’,

machen ‘make/do’, and sollen ‘should’) appear at the end of the

relative clause, while the other constituents (du ‘you’, schon

‘already’, and gestern ‘yesterday’) precede the verbal elements of

the sentence in an syntactically SOV order.

9. Quantifiers

Quantifiers generally precede the head of a noun phrase,

such as in the phrase viele Wege führen nach Rom ‘many roads lead to

Rome’. Quantifiers, like other modifiers such as adjectives, must

match the head in case and gender; note that viele (from the word

viel ‘many/much’) is assigned a plural inflectional suffix –e in

order to correlate with the Nominativ case and plurality of Wege

‘roads’ (from Weg ‘road/way’), which also utilizes the –e plural

suffix.

Quantifiers may also appear in a variety of positions within

a sentence, each of which often denote a different dimension of

meaning. Consider the variant uses of alles ‘everything’ in the

following sentences, both of which may be translated into English

as ‘I’ve seen it all’:

i. Alles habe ich schon gesehen.

ii. Ich habe schon alles gesehen.

Though both sentences are rendered as almost identical

statements in English, each sentence bears a different semantic

intention. In the first sentence, the speaker is emphasizing that

he or she has already seen everything within the situation; in the

second sentence, the speaker emphasizes the completion of his or

her act of seeing a specific object, rather than emphasizing the

amount of what has been seen with alles.

Numerals, both cardinal and ordinal, both precede the noun

phrase head as well, as in (16) and (17):

(16) Ich habe die drei, groβen Hunden

gesehen.

I have-1PS the-PL three, big-ADJ dog-PL see-PastPart

‘I saw the three big dogs’ (source:

personal knowledge)

(17) Der dritte müde Mann verlassen hat.

The-MASC third tired man leave-PST have-3PS

‘The third man has left’ (source:

personal knowledge)

In (16), the cardinal number drei ‘three’ precedes the head

of the noun phrase, Hunden ‘dogs’, as well as the other modifiers

in the sentence (in this case, only groβen ‘big’), following the

rule for quantifiers within the ‘Heaviness Hierarchy’. In (17),

the ordinal number dritte ‘third’ exhibits the same syntactic

placement as the previous cardinal number. Note that cardinal

numbers tend to follow gender, declension, and gender regulations

according to the type of inflectional category into which each

number falls

10. Adverbials

Adverbial phrases often follow the head of the noun phrase,

such as in the sentence er läuft sehr schnell ‘he runs very fast’, in

which the adverbial phrase sehr schnell ‘very fast’ refers to the

relative speed at which the subject er (which stands alone in the

initial noun phrase) can run. Most adverbial phrases also follow

modifiers, especially in constructions in which the adverbial

word is being emphasized, such as in the sentence die

Menschenmenge schrie sehr laut ‘the crowd screamed very loudly’, in

which the primary adverbial word laut ‘loud’ is modified by sehr

‘very’.

Note that adverbials in German resemble their adjectival

counterparts but, unlike adjectives, are not inflected (Donaldson

2007); thus, the primary criteria for distinguishing between an

adjective and an adverb are the environment of the word

(adjectives precede the head of a NP while adverbs generally

follow the head) and the appearance of inflectional endings. For

example, laut ‘loud’ would not change if utilized as an adverb,

such as in the previous examples, but in a phrase such as das laute

Publikum ‘the loud audience’ in which laut is used as an adjective,

laut must be assigned an appropriate inflectional ending. This is

true even in cases when an adverb precedes the head of a noun

phrase, such as in the phrase eine furchtbar nette Frau ‘an awfully

nice woman’, in which furchtbar ‘terribly’ (used in the sense

meaning ‘very’) modifies the degree to which the woman is nice

(note the Nominativ feminine ending following nett ‘nice’)

11. Comparative/Superlative/Equative Structures

Comparative and superlative structures work similarly to

those in English, utilizing the endings –er (for comparatives)

and –ste/–sten (for superlatives, related to the English –est),

the latter of which often appears with the correlative particle

am (such as in the phrase am schönsten ‘the most beautiful (of

three or more nouns)’). Such structures are also frequently

precedes by modifers, as in the phrase die Beste ist immer noch Mutti

‘Mom is still the best’ (with the phrase die Beste ‘the best’

acting as a subject within the NP rather than an adjectival

phrase). German is also similar to English in its use of the

irregular paradigm of the comparative in relation to the

adjective gut, which becomes besser ‘better’ in the comparative

form and am besten ‘best’ in the superlative form (Donaldson

2007). Lastly, the conjunction als ‘as’ appears frequently in

comparative forms, such as in the phrase der Mann ist gröβer als die Frau

‘the man is bigger than the woman’, in which der Mann ‘the man’

is compared to die Frau ‘the woman’ using the comparative phrase

gröβer als ‘bigger than’.

Comparative constructions also appear in correlative

structures, such as in the phrase Je länger du hinschaust, desto mehr

siehst du ‘the longer you look, the more you see’. In this phrase,

the correlative comparative compound is formed from länger

‘longer’ and mehr ‘more’, and the phrase as a whole is used, in

this case, not to compare two nouns but instead to emphasize the

benefits of spending more time observing something in order to

elicit more details from it. Also note the use of the correlative

structure je…desto in this sentence, without which the correlative

could not be constructed.

A common German word used to indicate similarity between

nouns is the preposition wie, which can be used to simply render

a word similar to the conjunctions ‘like’ and ‘as’ in English,

such as in the phrase das Gleiche wie vorhin ‘the same as before’. Wie

is a multifunctional word in German, acting also as a conjunction

and an adverb (observable in the common German question wie heiβt

du ‘what is your name?’).

Wie also appears in other comparative structures in which

nouns are described through metaphorical comparisons. A famous

example of this use occurs in the opening lines of

‘Schneewittchen’ by the Brothers Grimm, translated into English

as ‘Snow White’. When describing the infant Snow White’s physical

features, the Grimms write:

“Bald darauf bekam sie ein Töchterlein, das war so weiβ wie

Schnee, so rot wie Blut und so schwarzhaarig wie Ebenholz und ward

darum Schneewittchen genannt.”

(Grimm & Grimm 1854)

Though some features of the German language utilized by the

Grimms are now considered archaic (such as the use of the word

genannt ‘named’), the use of the construction so…wie suggests a

metaphorical comparison; in this case, Schneewittchen is

described as being white as snow (so weiβ wie Schnee), red as blood

(so rot wie Blut), and having hair as black as ebony (so schwarzhaarig

wie Ebenholz), and each construction uses wie as a conjunction of

comparison between physical objects and other objects that they

resemble.

12. Conclusion

Modern standard German bears a strong resemblance to other

Germanic languages because of its similar history, vocabulary,

and synthetic use of isolating and synthetic grammatical

structures. However, standard German is unique (along with Dutch)

in having preserved a variable SVO/SOV word order typology and in

its ability to utilize relatively free constructions of various

word orders within a sentence due to its complex system of

declension and gender morphology. Because of the grammatical and

syntactical information embedded within nouns, pronouns, and

adjectives, German speaker may employ a diversity of

constructions, even within the noun-phrase structure of a

sentence, and indicate nuanced differences in meaning by shifting

the position of a constituent within the noun phrase.

References

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Dryer, Matthew S. & Haspelmath, Martin (eds.) 2013. The World

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published 1854)

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York, NY: Routledge.

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