Study of historical syntax of German nounphrase

现代德语为了在一句话中传达尽可能多的信息，发展了其复杂的句子结构。但信息的载体主要是名词短语，如复合名词。不定式和从属从句。本文主要研究了早期新高地德语散文故事中从属子句的句法。研究的主要结果是：1)在早期新高地德语中经常观察到的动词性框架外定位具有以下语篇构成功能：1)标记语义单位。ii)这些相同的单位是为了语用目的而排列的，如使句子有节奏或便于听懂。iii)强调某些语义单位。iv)用于添加、重复或释义某些语义单位。2)早期新高地德语中主分句和从属分句的区别在形态上是明显的，但从属分句往往不具有突出信息的功能。因此，从属分句在信息分级中的语用功能往往与主分句差别不大。3)语义单位的顺序。这些都是用标点符号来标记的，定位在动词框架之外，从属从句，这些都不同于今天的德语。它不是形合而是意合。语义单位主要是按时间顺序排列的。

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.