Expletivum

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An expletivum (also expletive , derived from the Latin expleo , i.e. to complement, complete) is a pronoun that is used exclusively for reasons of correct sentence structure , but has no content-related reference to an object or a person. In German, the pronoun has functions as an expletive, among other things.

In another meaning, a noise word is sometimes referred to as an expletive .

Sentence position

In many languages ​​(including English and French ) it is imperative that a word takes the position of the subject. This also applies if the described action does not include any actors who could be considered. Such problems are typically found in the following verb categories:

  • Verbs like "seem" or "wonder" (" it seems that")
  • Existence statements ("there is"; French: " il ya")
  • Verbs for weather phenomena (“it is snowing”; “it is raining”) or other properties of an entire environment (“it stinks here”).

Expletive in German

German knows an expletive pronoun es , which is required of individual verbs as a grammatical subject (especially weather verbs such as rain , cf. Impersonal ). However, there is no grammatically prescribed subject-expletive as in other languages; in sentences that have no subject for general grammatical reasons, such as in the impersonal passive voice , is constructed completely subjectless in German:

Geraucht werden darf hier nicht
*nicht: Geraucht werden darf es hier nicht

On the other hand, there is a special expletive in German to fill the apron in a second sentence:

Es darf gelacht werden.
Darf jetzt gelacht werden?
*nicht: Darf es jetzt gelacht werden?

Since this can not appear inside the sentence, it is not an expletive subject, as in the case of verbs of the type raining (test: is it raining? - yes, it's raining. ). As an alternative to “Vorfeld- es ”, the particle “da” can also be used in German in some cases.

Expletiva in constituent tests

There are problems with using Expletiva when testing constituents . In German, the expletive "es" can be at the beginning of a sentence or after the verb , or it can be separated from the verb by an adverb .

  1. It's raining.
  2. Is it raining?
  3. Because it's raining now.

It seems to be a constituent, an independent sentence unit. This is countered by the fact that it is not fully convertible:

  1. Because it's raining now.
  2. * Because now it's raining.
  3. He saw it raining.
  4. * He saw it raining.

Substitution, question and coordination tests also fail:

  1. * The man is raining.
  2. * Who / what is raining?
  3. * It and the man is raining / raining.

It follows that not all tests have to be positive for a word sequence to be considered a constituent. The tests are not a necessary condition.

literature

  • Jürgen Lenerz: On the theory of syntactic change: the expletive es in the history of German. In: Werner Abraham (Ed.): Explanatory Syntax of German. Narr., Tübingen 1985, pp. 99-136.
  • Stefan Müller: Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar: An Introduction. Stauffenberg Verlag, Tübingen, 2007, pp. 5-6 .; http://hpsg.fu-berlin.de/~stefan/PS/hpsg-lehrbuch-.pdf