Open Access

Thilo Weber

• Dieses Kapitel untersucht die syntaktischen Funktionen von vollen (nicht-pronominalen) Nominalphrasen (NPs) und die Funktionen der vier Kasus des Deutschen aus quantitativer Perspektive. Es wird vorgeschlagen, das Konzept der syntaktischen Funktion in grundlegendere Merkmale zu zerlegen. Dazu gehören der Typ desjenigen Elements, dem die NP untergeordnet ist, und die Art der Beziehung zwischen der NP und dem übergeordneten Element (ganz allgemein: Komplementation vs. Modifikation).
• The present chapter investigates the syntactic functions of noun phrases (NPs) and the functions of the four grammatical cases in German from a quantitative perspective. We propose that what is called a given constituent’s ‘syntactic function’ should be broken down into more basic notions. These include the type of element to which the constituent in question is subordinate (e. g. verb, preposition, noun) and the nature of the relation between the subordinate constituent and its superordinate element (most generally: complementation vs. modification). Based on a random sample of 7.813 NPs, it is shown that most NPs are subordinate to either a verb, a preposition or a noun. The verb-dependent NPs are overwhelmingly accounted for by two types of complements, viz. (nominative) subjects and accusative objects, the preposition-dependent NPs are mostly accounted for by complements occurring in the dative or accusative, and the noun-dependent NPs are mostly accounted for by genitives usually judged as modifiers. Three of the four cases are thus characterized by one dominant ‘function’, understood as describing a particular relation to a particular superordinate element: The majority of nominatives are accounted for by subjects; the majority of datives are accounted for by complements of prepositions, and the majority of genitives are found on modifiers to a noun. Only the accusative is frequent in two functions, viz. both as an object and as a complement of a preposition.