Volume 21, Issue 1

Copular complements of Indo-European languages can be expressed either through a more static, nominal concept or through a more transient, verbal one. This is a twofold paradigm, which is realized in a different manner for each of the individual Indo-European languages, for instance by the presence or lack of a copular verb or word order. In Vedic for example the predicative adjective occurs before the noun and therefore stands for a nominal concept, comparable with the position of the attributive adjective. But Vedic has also a special kind of word formation which differentiates between the two concepts, i.e. the two distinct accent patterns for the nomen agentis formed with -tar-, the acrostatic and the hysterodynamic pattern. The acrostatic accent, the more verbal pattern, retains unmodified elements of the basic verb whereas the hysterodynamic pattern requires a complement as genitivus obiectivus and therefore represents a more nominal concept. The acrostatic type can be related to a stage level predicate and the hysterodynamic one to an individual level predicate. Vedic therefore yields a very important contribution to the study of the properties which are predicated over the referent of the subject.

The present study investigates the relationship between grammar and interaction, specifically, the forms and interactional functions of direct and indirect discourse in spoken German. The study demonstrates that quotatives and the grammatical form of quotes are context-sensitive; that is, depending on the current actions (either providing background information, telling stories, telling troubles, or giving explanations), interactants select different quotation formats. The use of the subjunctive or Konjunktiv is only one of several quotation formats used by speakers in interaction for very specific social purposes; these social purposes are oriented to as such by coparticipants.

The goal of this paper is to uncover the characteristic properties of postnominal adjectives and to describe selected samples in the generative framework of X-bar theory. After a descriptive account of the data we will classify the superficially similar constructions into eight subgroups and point out the factors determining the function of adjectives as attributes, predicates or adverbials. The focus of the generative analysis is on the syntax of those uninflected bare adjectives which immediately follow the modifyee without intonational break as attributive modifiers, as for example constructions of the type Forelle blau (trout blue, 'cooked trout'), Rahmspinat tiefgefroren (cream spinach deep-frozen, 'frozen spinach with cream'), Aktie gelb (share yellow, i.e. the share of the German postal mail), and Whisky pur ('whiskey-straight'). In all of these cases the modified NP is foregrounded and the construction does normally not occur clause internally. For the classification, the distinction of idiomatic and non-idomatic complex terms is of primary relevance. The intermediate levels of projection assumed in X-bar theory allow for proper syntactical distinction of these two types: The postnominal adjective in idiomatic expressions ( Forelle blau) and in complex proper names {Aktie gelb, Henkell trocken, Henkell dry, i.e. a brandname of champagne) are analysed as adjuncts to N°. Adjectives in non-ididomatic expressions ( Schnitzel paniert, 'Vienna schnitzel', Rahmspinat tiefgefroren) are analysed as adjuncts to N\ Finally we explain our assumption that although at first sight it might appear so, those postnominal attributive constructions do not give rise to grammaticalisation of a new type of word order.