Syntaktische, semantische und pragmatische Funktionen von Nominalgruppen im Deutschen
Syntaktische, semantische und pragmatische Funktionen von Nominalgruppen im Deutschen

Summary/Abstract: This paper gives an overview of the diverse functions of nominal expressions in present day German. From the point of view of pragmatics, the referential use of nominals can be distinguished from their non-referential uses. The latter are subdivided into descriptive and denominative uses. Syntactically, nominals can function as arguments, predicatives and adverbials. These functions differ mainly in the distribution of morphological case and thematic roles. With respect to their internal constituency, nominals which contain a determiner are distinguished from determinerless ones. In present day German, nominals with a determiner are prototypical, while determinerless ones are restricted to particular conditions of use. Closely related to determiners is the distinction of definiteness. Definite nominals contain a definite marker, indefinite ones fail to do so. From a semantic point of view, count and mass readings and particular and generic readings must be distinguished. – The paper is meant as an introductory survey for students and teachers both of German Linguistics and of German as a Foreign Language.

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