Concession rate
Under a concessive ( Latin concessivus of concedere grant = concede) even granting sentence , is meant in the grammar a particular type of adverbial subordinate clause . The combination of a concessionary subordinate clause and the associated main clause is also called a concessive structure .
A concessionary subordinate clause expresses circumstances that would normally conflict with the meaning of the main clause and that make the content of the main clause appear unexpected. Such a subordinate clause, for example, introduce words such as though, though, if also . There is no single question word for this type of adverbial.
meaning
A concessive clause or a concessive structure contains as an unspoken requirement an expectation that can be expressed with a conditional clause, for example: "When it rains, people don't want to go outside." Against the background of such an expectation, a concessive clause is used, to express that this connection has no effect in the concrete case, so in the example case: “ Although it was raining, people went for a walk.” The fact “it is raining” that follows in the although sentence is therefore used as a “Insufficient counter-reason” to the content of the main clause.
The concessive clause therefore differs from the adversative clause : The adversative clause expresses that two things have opposing properties, whereas the concessive clause contains an opposition to an expectation.
Conjunctions that introduce concessive clauses
Concessive clauses are introduced by special (subordinate) conjunctions ; above all: although, although, although , as in the examples:
- " Although the boy is called, he does not come."
- “Concerns and uncertainty slow down many companies on their way through the digital transformation , even though the topic occupies a top position on their strategic agenda. "
Often there are also compositions with the conjunction if in the form also if ..., if also or separate if ... also :
- " Even if she was so tired, she didn't show anything."
- " If it also was so tired, so she let herself but not show it."
As with all conditional clauses with if , the main clause can also be introduced with a like that.
The special case anyway
Sometimes the word can still be used as an introductory subordinate conjunction, in which it has the same meaning and function as though . This use is considered undesirable in the standard language, but is common especially in the colloquial southern German language and can also be found in older texts.
- “He's holding up unexpectedly well, even though his girlfriend left him. "
Here derives still a one subordinate clause with verb-final position, thus behaves exactly as though . In this use of anyway , the stress always falls on the second syllable ( anyway ).
This type of concessional subordinate clause is to be distinguished from the common usage of anyway , in which it is an adverb , for example:
- “His girlfriend left him. Nevertheless it holds up very well. "
As a whole, this pair of sentences has a similar meaning to the colloquial example above; but in detail it is structured completely differently. First of all, it should be noted that the word is still not in the part that would correspond to its meaning according to a concessive clause; namely, this would be the part: His girlfriend has left him (background assumption: "If someone has been left, he is bad"). This case is also completely different grammatically: The word anyway can be moved as an adverb to another place in the sentence ("He still holds up well"), and the verb is in second place in the sentence , whereas after a conjunction like though that Verb appears at the end of the sentence. The second pair of examples is structured differently than a concessive structure, both for grammatical reasons and for meaning.
See also
Web links
- The concession clause in Canoonet's online grammar