Study of historical syntax of German nounphrase

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The modern German has developed its complicated structures of sentence in order to trasmit so much informations as possible in one sentence. But the carriers of information are mainly noun phrases like compound nouns. infinitives and dependent clauses. This study focused on the syntax of dependent clauses in a prose story written in Early New High German. The main results of the study are :1) Positioning out of the verbal frame, which is often observed in the Early New High German, has the following text constiting functions :i) It marks semantic units.ii) These samantics units are ordered for the pragmatic purpose like making rhythm in a sentence or easy understanding by hearing.iii) It emphasizes certain semantic units.iv) It is used for adding, repeating or paraphrasing certain semantic units.2) The distinction between a main clause and a dependent clause in the Early New High German is morphologically evident, but dependent clauses often do not have the function of foregrounding an information. Therefore dependent clauses are often not so much different from main clauses in their pragmatic function in information graduation.3) Order of semantic units. which are marked by punctuation, positioning out of the verbal frame, dependent clauses, is different from those of present day German. It is not hypotactic but paratactic. The sematic units are mainly arranged along the course of time.