The Role of German Preverbs in Clausal Selection Properties

One aspect of clausal embedding that has not received any specific attention in the literature is the question of whether and how derivational morphology may affect clausal selection properties of the respective bases. In this paper, I will focus on the role of German preverbs for clausal embedding....

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Main Author: Barbara Stiebels
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-04-01
Series:Languages
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/10/4/74
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author Barbara Stiebels
author_facet Barbara Stiebels
author_sort Barbara Stiebels
collection DOAJ
description One aspect of clausal embedding that has not received any specific attention in the literature is the question of whether and how derivational morphology may affect clausal selection properties of the respective bases. In this paper, I will focus on the role of German preverbs for clausal embedding. I will show that any parameter of clausal embedding can be affected by a preverb, though sometimes in a non-compositional way. Preverbs may affect presuppositions and entailments of their base verb, their selectional behavior with respect to clause types, their status as control or raising predicate and their potential for restructuring. Furthermore, preverbs may license or block <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">neg</span>-raising. The first part of the paper is dedicated to the demonstration of these effects with no specific preverb in mind. The second part discusses three specific preverb patterns with <i>zu</i>- ‘to’, <i>ein</i>- ‘in’ and <i>er</i>-, showing their specific clausal complementation properties. Preverbs influence clausal complementation by their impact on the argument structure/realization (in the case of control and restructuring) and on the lexical aspect of the base (in the case of certain interrogative complements and <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">neg</span>-raising).
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spelling doaj-art-2328e46dcaae4af688793f7a34d5dcbd2025-08-20T02:18:03ZengMDPI AGLanguages2226-471X2025-04-011047410.3390/languages10040074The Role of German Preverbs in Clausal Selection PropertiesBarbara Stiebels0Institut für Linguistik, Universität Leipzig, Beethovenstraße 15, 04107 Leipzig, GermanyOne aspect of clausal embedding that has not received any specific attention in the literature is the question of whether and how derivational morphology may affect clausal selection properties of the respective bases. In this paper, I will focus on the role of German preverbs for clausal embedding. I will show that any parameter of clausal embedding can be affected by a preverb, though sometimes in a non-compositional way. Preverbs may affect presuppositions and entailments of their base verb, their selectional behavior with respect to clause types, their status as control or raising predicate and their potential for restructuring. Furthermore, preverbs may license or block <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">neg</span>-raising. The first part of the paper is dedicated to the demonstration of these effects with no specific preverb in mind. The second part discusses three specific preverb patterns with <i>zu</i>- ‘to’, <i>ein</i>- ‘in’ and <i>er</i>-, showing their specific clausal complementation properties. Preverbs influence clausal complementation by their impact on the argument structure/realization (in the case of control and restructuring) and on the lexical aspect of the base (in the case of certain interrogative complements and <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">neg</span>-raising).https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/10/4/74preverbparticle verbprefix verbGermanclausal selectionclause type
spellingShingle Barbara Stiebels
The Role of German Preverbs in Clausal Selection Properties
Languages
preverb
particle verb
prefix verb
German
clausal selection
clause type
title The Role of German Preverbs in Clausal Selection Properties
title_full The Role of German Preverbs in Clausal Selection Properties
title_fullStr The Role of German Preverbs in Clausal Selection Properties
title_full_unstemmed The Role of German Preverbs in Clausal Selection Properties
title_short The Role of German Preverbs in Clausal Selection Properties
title_sort role of german preverbs in clausal selection properties
topic preverb
particle verb
prefix verb
German
clausal selection
clause type
url https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/10/4/74
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