Es war einmal ein Subjekt

This article deals with the occurrence of es in the subject position in German. It explores the functions of es as the subject of impersonal verbs, impersonal copula constructions and impersonal passive constructions. Explanations are offered to its obligatory and facultative functions in different construction types. The final part of the paper explores through a pilot study the acceptability of es as an expletive element in sentences with two predicates and one subject. Two rules are given to explain the findings

Unnötige Regeln

This paper argues that among the rules used in foreign language teaching there are often unnecessary ones. These rules offer detailed description of linguistic facts that probably could be learned easier without them. Although "explanatory rules" of this sort might be quite helpful when offered as additional explanations, they can hinder the language learning process when presented as rules to be learned and obeyed ("learning rules"). In order to show the difference between this set of rules more clearly, several examples are given. They belong to the context of German as a foreign language and concern the declension and comparison of the adjective, diminutives, and the passive voice

Salz, eine Brezel und der Weg zum Bahnhof. Strategien des Bittens in Varietäten des Deutschen und im Serbischen

This paper examines the verbal strategies used by speakers of German in Germany and Switzerland and speakers of Serbian in Serbia in order to voice a request. The participants in the study were asked what they would say in the following three situations: Asking for the way to the railway station in a strange city, asking their younger brother to pass the salt at the family dinner table, and buying a pretzel at the local bakery. Subsequently, the use of downtoners like 'please' or special particles was analysed, as well as the frequency of non-indicative verbal modes (subjunctive or conditional), the occurrence an equivalent of excuse me at the beginning of the request, and the use of greetings and address forms. The results show surprising differences between the three groups

Die Frist ist um. Prädikativer Gebrauch von Präpositionen

The paper analyses the structure of sentences like German Die Frist ist um (or English It's over), where prepositions without complements function as predicates. Several possible explanations for the occurrence of such forms are explored and found unsatisfactory, e. g. the assumption of elliptical constructions or of verb particles linked to the copula verb sein. Explanations limited to the German language cannot help, since the same kind of construction can be observed in other languages, too. However, this specific sentence type seems to be restricted to local prepositions, paralleling the syntactic distribution of local (but not modal, causal etc.) adverbs in this regard. Consequently, the general nature of local expressions in the languages of the world is being discussed, and the diachronic development of local prepositions in German is taken into account. It turns out that not only were all German local prepositions originally members of other word classes, but most of them still are adverbs. The astonishing fact that there is layering of different states of grammaticalization over such a long period of time explains why predicative use of local prepositions without complements is possible, while the specific treatment of these elements by itself points to the exceptional position - in cognitive terms - of local conception

All men become brothers. The use of kinship terms for non-related persons as a sign of respect or disrespect

In many different languages, kinship terms can be used in order to address or refer to non-kin. These terms can be very polite, and in many languages this is the only meaning and function they have. However, in some languages terms with the same meaning can be very impolite. This article shows how these differences can be explained by the nature of the underlying cultural concepts. In addition, it explores the question why kinship terms are used at all, be it in a polite or impolite way, in order to talk to or about non-related people