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There is a long tradition in German linguistics to describe German word order in the theory of topological fields [Herling 1821, Erdmann 1886, Bierwisch 1963, Höhle 1995]. The word order constraints that we are going to present includes a formalization of parts of this theory.
Classically, three topological types of German sentences are distinguished depending on the position of the main verb: verb-two type, verb-one type, and verb-last type.
verb-two: | (denn) damit hat keiner gerechnet |
der Professor hatte dem Studenten vor einigen Monaten versprochen das Gutachten bald zu schreiben | |
verb-one: | regnet es? |
(aber) würde jemand den Hund füttern morgen abend | |
verb-last: | (daß) es regnet |
das Gutachten bald zu schreiben |
The theory of topological fields predicts that the words a sentences can be partitioned into several fields depending on the type of sentence (Vorfeld, Mittelfeld, etc) such that certain field constraints are satisfied.
In this script, we will only consider verb-two sentences, i.e. no relative sentences and no questions. This topological type is described by the following scheme:
KOORD | Vorfeld | FINIT | Mittelfeld | Verbkomplex | Nachfeld |
denn | damit | hat | keiner | gerechnet | |
der Professor | hatte | dem Studenten vor einigen Monaten | versprochen | das Gutachten bald zu schreiben |
The topological fields for German impose the following field constraints for verb-two type sentences, which in fact are quite typical and natural:
the Vorfeld contains exactly one constituent.
the FINIT-field contains a finite verb.
a verb-two sentence can be partitioned into the following disjoint fields: Vorfeld, FINIT, Mittelfeld, Verbkomplex, Nachfeld
the fields come in the order in which they are given above.
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