Supplementary question
The supplementary question (also: determination question , sentence component question , W question ) is a type of question sentence . Complementary questions are introduced by interrogative adverbs or interrogative pronouns ; In German these all have the letter <w> ( sound : [v]) in the first place and are therefore also referred to as W-words : who, which, when, where , etc.
The supplementary question forms a contrast to the sentence type of the decision question , which is answered with yes or no . The answer to a supplementary question, on the other hand, consists of naming people or things, an event or state or the more detailed circumstances of such situations.
Examples of different types of supplementary questions
Supplementary questions can be formulated with reference to almost all parts of the sentence (however, many sentence adverbials are an exception ). The answer to a supplementary question can consist of naming the requested part of the sentence alone or of a whole sentence in which the requested unit is emphasized as new information through emphasis or word order (capitalization symbolizes the emphasis in the following).
- Asking a participant in the situation (the question word stands for the subject or object of the sentence):
- Who said that? - Answer: My neighbor. Or: That's what my neighbor said / My neighbor said that.
- What did she say
- Who do you trust the most?
- Question about circumstances (the question word stands for an adverbial definition ):
- Where do we want to meet tomorrow? - Answer: In the beer garden. (Local adverbial)
- How do you turn that off? - Answer: (You switch this off) by holding this key down for a while. (Ask about the manner; answer in this example with a modal sentence )
- It should be noted that the question word how is very ambiguous, compare the examples for the predicative.
- Asking a property (the question word stands for a predicative ):
- What is it
- As what are you dressed?
- How did he leave the house? - Answer: (He has left the house) in the greatest disorder. Asked here as the condition of the house at the time of leaving (that requested a so-called secondary Praedicativum ). The question could also be interpreted as a question of a manner adverbial: How did he leave the house? - Answer: on foot .
- Ask about a property - the question word stands for an attribute :
- Which wine should I open? - Answer: the red one.
- Ask about a situation as a whole:
- What 's going on? - answer z. B: Someone fainted. (The answer consists of a whole sentence without emphasis and with neutral sentence stress, so here a slight accent on OHNmacht . Nevertheless, this was not a decision-making question because the question did not open a yes / no alternative.)
syntax
In German, question words are always at the beginning of a sentence - unless there is more than one question word in the sentence, i.e. H. In multiple questions, there are further question words inside the sentence (example: who worked with whom? ). In the main clause, the finite verb follows in the second position, as in the example sentences above: Who said that? etc. As main clauses, supplementary questions in German are verb- second clauses , as well as statements. The same question words are used in an indirect question, but then form a subordinate clause with the verb ending: I wonder where we should meet tomorrow.
See also
- Field model of the German sentence # Field occupation and the marking of the sentence types
- German grammar # Syntax: word order in the main and subordinate clauses
- Emergency # Emergency call by phone
literature
- Duden. The grammar. 8th edition. Dudenverlag, Mannheim 2009.
- Helmut Glück (Ed.): Metzler Lexicon Language . 4th edition. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2010, supplementary question.
