Circumposition
A circumposition (also: Circumposition , clip-preposition , clinching preposition ) is called in the art of grammar a Adposition (preposition in a broad sense), which consists of a mating pair of a preposition (in the narrow sense) and a postal item existed which the brace the word assigned to them. These two parts acquire a certain meaning in combination and theoretically do not necessarily have to appear alone. Other forms of adposition are the single preposition and the single postposition.
Examples
- " To heaven 's sake "
- " From this point on "
- " Of its own motion because "
- "Insurance on oath place "; "Acceptance of the child instead of "
In a real circumposition, both parts are assigned to the word in brackets, so that the circumpositional phrase can be viewed as independent and complete.
Problem cases
Phrases such as "to protect against" are sometimes considered circumpositional expressions, but they are incorrect. The second adposition is a preposition to which a second noun has to be assigned ("to protect against the enemy"), so the phrase is not yet complete. In the example, “against” and “the enemy” form a prepositional phrase that is assigned to the noun “protection” as an attribute . This noun in turn forms a prepositional expression with “zum” itself. So there are two (initially incomplete) nested prepositional phrases and by no means a circumposition.
It is also controversial to refer to “up the mountain” and similarly constructed expressions as circumpositional. This is (if the meaning is the same as “up on the mountain”) an adverb, “up”, which is defined more precisely by another adpositional phrase, “up to the mountain”; compare also "up there". However, if the expression denotes a terminative reinforcement of the upward movement, then it is a real circumposition.
literature
- Henning Bergenholtz, Burkhard Schaeder: The parts of speech in German. Attempt of a syntactically oriented classification. Klett, Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 3-12-910460-7 , pp. 138-140.
