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In:Germanic Genitives
Edited by Tanja Ackermann, Horst J. Simon and Christian Zimmer
[Studies in Language Companion Series 193] 2018
► pp. 149–188

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The Genitive Rule and its background

 | University of Jena
Published online: 26 April 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.193.07gal
Abstract
In the German Language, there are two types of rules that determine whether a DP/NP may bear genitive case or not. The type I rules handle the case assignment as in other languages with morphological case, including a visibility condition for the genitive case. The type II rules refer to the DP/NP-internal feature distribution. The interaction of these rules can be formulated as a corollary, the Genitive Rule. Since the type II rules are merely descriptive generalizations, the question arises to what extent the Genitive Rule really covers the diverse constructions with genitive case. On the whole, the Genitive Rule seems to predict the distribution of the genitive constructions and their competitors with other cases correctly. Nonetheless, two deviations are to be expected (and can be observed): (i) A construction is grammatical in spite of violating the Genitive Rule; (ii) a construction is ungrammatical in spite of complying with the Genitive Rule. In both circumstances a second question arises: Which factors trigger the unexpected behavior?
Article outline
  • 1.Genitive and visibility
  • 2.DP/NP-internal feature distribution in German
    • 2.1Obscure case forms
    • 2.2Main and secondary feature bearers
  • 3.The interaction of visibility and feature distribution
    • The ending -e (dative)
    • The ending -en of the weak masculine nouns
    • The ending -n of dative plural
    • The ending -es/-s of the strong masculine and neuter nouns
    • 3.1Compulsory and optional substitutive constructions
    • 3.2Overview of the following discussion
  • 4.The expected behavior
    • A.Possessive genitive, prenominal
    • B.Possessive genitives and related genitive constructions, postnominal
    • C.Postnominal Genitivus qualitatis
    • D.Postnominal Genitivus explicativus (explicative genitive)
    • E.Partitive genitive
    • F.Preposition+genitive phrase
    • G.Genitive object
    • H.Adverbial genitive phrases
    • I.“Loose” apposition
    • J. als/wie+DP/NP
  • 5.Unexpected behavior I
    • 5.1Pronouns with genitive marker -es
    • 5.2Recurring genitive phrases
  • 6.Unexpected behavior II
    • 6.1Prestigious prepositions
    • 6.2Proper nouns
    • i.
    • ii.
    • iii.
    • iv.
    • 6.3Derivations from geographical proper names with suffix -er
    • 6.4Some other constructions
  • 7.The Genitive Rule and the tendency to redundancy-free inflection
    • 7.1Loss of the genitive ending of nouns
    • 7.2Determiners: Weak vs. strong endings
    • 7.3The preference against case forms of nouns
  • 8.Conlusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Sources
  • References
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