Basic structural differences within a linguistic comparison of English and German grammar

Trabajo , 2006 , 15 Páginas , Calificación: 1,7

Filología inglesa y estudios literarios: Literatura comparada

Introduction

Since German and English both belong to the same family of languages, i.e. West Germanic, they are - at least, from an historical point of view - closely related languages. By investigating their respective grammatical structures it is to be discussed whether the existing structural contrasts between English and German grammar are related as well.
Within this paper the most general and basic of the occurring differences will be summarised and analysed by taking John Hawkins’ A Comparative Typology of English and German. Unifying the Contrasts as a basic source. Hawkins argues that where German and English contrast the latter tends to show less correspondence between form and meaning. This is due to his central hypothesis which says that it is possible to establish general principles which unite the major contrasts between both languages (cf. 4). Hawkins assumes that the differences within the grammatical structures are not accidental ones; they are rather systematic and can be traced back to one “ultimate trigger “ (5) in the history of the English language - phonological changes which caused all further structural differences as either direct or indirect consequences of this process (cf. 5-7). The attempt of this paper is to draw conclusions from this knowledge of the common historical background and apply it to the modern “versions” of the German and English language and the major patterns of variation.
To get a descriptive and lucid image of the contrasts between the two languages, we first start on the level of individual words by considering their morphological structure, i.e. we will examine the inflection of the verb and the case marking of noun phrases. This will lead us directly to questions concerning word order and basic grammatical relations on the syntactical level. Finally, a short analysis of verb-first-structures in English and German will round off the discussion.

Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)

• Introduction
• Morphologically based differences
  • The inflection of the verb
  • Case marking
• Word order structures in contrast
• Basic grammatical relations
  • Objects
  • Subjects
• Verb-first structures
• Conclusion

Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)

This paper aims to investigate the structural differences between English and German grammar, focusing on how these differences relate to their shared West Germanic origins. By examining the most basic and general contrasts, the paper aims to understand the systematic nature of these differences and their historical development.

• The impact of phonological changes on English grammatical structures
• The loss of inflectional morphology in English, specifically in verb forms and case marking
• The relationship between morphological changes and the development of fixed word order in English
• The differences in basic grammatical relations between the two languages
• The analysis of verb-first structures in English and German

Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)

The introduction provides an overview of the paper's objectives and sets the stage for the analysis by outlining the historical relationship between English and German. It introduces John Hawkins' theory, which posits that English exhibits less correspondence between form and meaning due to historical phonological changes.

The chapter on morphologically based differences examines the inflection of the verb and case marking in both languages. It highlights the significant differences in verb inflection, with German exhibiting a more complex system of distinctions. The chapter further explores the loss of case marking in English and its impact on word order and semantic expression.

The chapter on word order structures in contrast delves into the fixed word order of English, contrasting it with the more flexible word order of German. This difference is attributed to the loss of case marking in English.

The chapter on basic grammatical relations examines the concepts of objects and subjects in both languages, highlighting the differences in their realization due to the distinct morphological systems.

The chapter on verb-first structures analyzes the occurrence of verb-first structures in English and German, providing insights into the syntactic differences between the two languages.

Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)

This paper focuses on the key concepts of comparative linguistics, grammatical structures, inflectional morphology, case marking, word order, basic grammatical relations, and verb-first structures, as well as the historical development of English and German.

• Universidad: http://www.uni-jena.de/ (Institut für Anglistik/Amerikanistik)
• Curso: HpS Contrastive Linguistics
• Calificación: 1,7
• Autor: M.A. Theresa Schmidt (Autor)
• Año de publicación: 2006
• Páginas: 15
• No. de catálogo: V146380
• ISBN (Ebook): 9783640550166
• ISBN (Libro): 9783640552191
• Idioma: Inglés
• Etiqueta: morphology, german english contrast, grammar, word order, case marking, inflection, verb-first structures, objects, subjects