German Prepositions in Prototypical Scaling: A “Non-Traditional” Classification with Didactic Implications Cover Image

Präpositionen des Deutschen in prototypischer Skalierung: eine „nicht-traditionelle“ Klassifikation mit didaktischen Implikationen
German Prepositions in Prototypical Scaling: A “Non-Traditional” Classification with Didactic Implications

Author(s): Patrizio Malloggi
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Foreign languages learning
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Sklodowskiej
Keywords: German prepositions; scale of prepositions; syntactic complement; nominal phrase; non-traditional classification of German prepositions

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this study is the classification of German prepositions, which is developed in the background of the definition of the preposition and takes its starting point from the type of syntactic complement. This leads to a scale of prepositions which can be represented as follows. Prototypical are prepositions that can only be followed by nominal phrases with an article and always show morphological case (e.g., während des Staatsbesuches). Less typical are prepositions that can also be followed by nominal phrases without an article and, as a consequence of this, they cannot show any morphological case (e.g., gegen Barzahlung). Untypical are prepositions that cannot be followed by nominal phrases with an article and never show morphological case (e.g., bis Montag). The investigation carried out in this article aims at providing a non-traditional classification of German prepositions. The obtained results are well suited for teaching prepositions in the didactics of German as a foreign and second language.

  • Issue Year: 7/2022
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 247-264
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: German
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