7
votes
Accepted
On the absence of the definite article in genitival noun phrases
This is a German grammar characteristic called "Nullartikel".
It basically means that, in some cases, you can leave out the (definite or indefinite) Article.
Examples of when this rule is ...
- 618
5
votes
Wortbildung rules
No, sadly the rules are somewhat less predictable.
For verbs, the infinitive ending does get omitted most of the time. But nouns may use either the singular or the plural or even a form that the ...
- 13.6k
5
votes
Accepted
Etymologie der Wortbildung mit -er
Nhd. -er hat verschiedene Quellen, die bis auf die ahd. Zeit oder weiter zurückreichen.
Lehnwörter: Kaiser (ahd. keisur) von lat. caesar, Butter (mhd. buter) von gr.-lat. butyrum
Lehnsuffix lat. -...
- 21.3k
4
votes
Accepted
Why did Heidegger say that, "German speaks being?"
As you said and as it is often the case with any of Heidegger's statements, I can only guess, and maybe the answer is just as simple as:
Heidegger's creative and, must often puzzling or sometimes ...
- 57k
4
votes
Accepted
Er baut Radio Rebelde mit auf
The verb is mitaufbauen.
It's English translation is
to collaborate in building sth.
MyDict has some example usages:
Sie werden das Dorf mitaufbauen. ( Quelle: Frankfurter Rundschau vom ...
- 110k
4
votes
Reduktion von Personalpronomen zu Flexionsmorphemen
Darüber hatte ich schon öfter nachgedacht, aber ich bin schon lange nicht mehr auf dem aktuellen Forschungsstand. Das Phänomen zieht sich in meiner Dialekt-Region durch die gesamte Konjugation: ...
- 4,343
3
votes
sg. and pl. "Busen" - dual number?
»... what looks like an inherent plural ending ...«
You think -en is a plural ending?
No, it's not:
Leben, Norden, Osten, Süden, Westen, Rahmen, Wagen, Zeichen, Morgen, Schaden, Garten, ...
Nor is -...
- 110k
3
votes
Accepted
Warum nicht frühlinglich?
Deutsche (eigentlich germanische) Wortbildung:
Das Suffix "-ling" wird in vielen germanischen Sprachen verwendet, um aus einem Adjektiv ein maskulines Substantiv mit der Bedeutung "...
- 57k
3
votes
Accepted
ab|erkennen, aber|kennen, etc
There is a general rule in German that composites have to be broken down in the opposite direction they have been constructed (e.g. for hyphenation).
German grammar rules simply state (§108)
...
- 57k
3
votes
Modal verbs: why those endings?
Historically the modal verbs derive from the perfect tense which took over a meaning
referring to present time. That's why the forms of the modal verbs don't follow the normal pattern.
German wissen,...
- 7,732
3
votes
On the word formation of »beschweren«
Among other features, Canoo.net offers the analysis of the word formation (Wortbildung).
You can find the analysis of the verb beschweren here:
It is your first version:
be + schwer + en
Looking at ...
- 4,180
2
votes
On the word formation of »beschweren«
The root of the term (sich zu) "beschweren" is the noun: Beschwer, die (article feminine).
The noun Beschwer is a jurisdictional term which colloquial meaning in German is: Last, Beschwerung, Nachteil ...
- 79
2
votes
Umkehroperation zum Substantivieren
Wenn ein Wort, das kein Nomen ist, durch Nominalisierung und ohne formale Veränderung die Wortart wechselt, redet man von Konversion.
Beispiele:
warten (Verb) -> Warten (Substantiv)
gegenüber (...
- 2,427
2
votes
Accepted
Modal verbs: why those endings?
As rogermue already pointed out, these verbs once were past tense forms:
Verbs that had a shift were past tense forms gained a present tense meaning like muss/müssen are called preterite presents or ...
- 7,433
2
votes
About a kind of "split" genitive
This is in no way specific to the genitive.
The definite article to a substantive is placed before any adjectives or other constructs that further qualify the substantive.
das dicke Buch
das neu ...
- 57k
2
votes
Meaning of the prefix "verab"
Since Verabredung is a noun derived from the verb verabreden, let's look at verbs that begin with verab-. The first thing to note is that the group is very small. The pattern is not productive (in the ...
- 21.3k
1
vote
Morphological Processes involving loss of umlaut
If a word with long e-sound origins from a word with ah, we write ä.
nah → Nähe
Gefahr → gefährlich
Stahl → stählern
Nahrung → nähren
So it's not a one-off, there are certain spelling rules when we ...
- 211
1
vote
Wortbildung rules
Wortbildung does rule ;-), although it's complicated.
The verb rule that you propose seems correct to me.
For nouns, there are just too many different ways and reasons of combining nouns. The most ...
- 14.9k
1
vote
Meaning of the prefix "verab"
Die Verabredung is a noun made from the verb verabreden.
The verb verabreden means to agree. You can boil it down to
reden – to talk
abreden, absprechen – to bargain, to negotiate
So, abreden and ...
- 46.3k
1
vote
ab|erkennen, aber|kennen, etc
There is no word aber|kennen, i.e. the combination of aber and kennen.
But if both existed (aber|kennen and ab|erkennen), you would not be able to see a difference, in writing, except from the ...
- 2,575
1
vote
Wie verwende ich das Wort "Apostroph" morphologisch richtig?
Singular Plural
Nominativ der Apostroph die Apostrophe
Genitiv des Apostrophs der Apostrophe
Dativ dem Apostroph den Apostrophen
Akkusativ den Apostroph die Apostrophe
...
- 10.1k
1
vote
About a kind of "split" genitive
It seems to me that you may be misunderstanding parts of the sentence. In particular, you may be confused by the function of "von". It is not a possessive, but corresponds to the English "by" in a ...
- 18.5k
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