The Structure of the German Quasi Clauses

NotesCf. W. G. Moulton, "Juncture in Modern Standard German," Lg., XXIII, 212, fn. 1. This lack of a scientific definition does not, however, stop the grammarians from discussing the two or more basic levels of German. It is possible to ascribe a linguistic phenomenon to one style level or another without being able to draw the boundaries separating the various strata in such a manner that most scholars would recognize them as valid. This has been done in the present article, and with full awareness of the theoretical difficulties involved. It is indeed hard to understand how a rigorous discussion of linguistic levels can avoid being circular: the various phenomena ascribed to one level at the same time make up the criteria for establishing that level, and conversely: the level established on the basis of various linguistic phenomena is then said tobe the level on which such phenomena are found.A. Bach, Geschichte der deutschen Sprache, 5th ed. (Heidelberg, 1953), p. 264.I. Dal, Kurze deutsche Syntax (Tübingen, 1952), p. 155 (italics apart from examples mine); see also p. 219. The seemingly paradoxical wording of the historical "explanation" need not concern us here. Cf. O. Erdmann, Grundzüge der deutschen Syntax (Stuttgart, 1886), p. 153, and W. Wilmanns, Deutsche Grammatik (Berlin and Leipzig, 1922), pp. 273–74. For a good discussion of the problems involved on the older stages of the language, see B. Delbrück, "Der germanische optativ im satzgefüge," PBB, XXIX, 280 f.O. Behaghel, Deutsche Syntax, III (Heidelberg, 1928), p. 689. Cf. Der große Duden (Zürich, 1935), p. 270, and O. Behaghel, Der Gebrauch der Zeitformen im konjunktivischen Neb nsatz des Deutschen (Paderborn, 1899), p. 92: "In den mit als im Sinne von quasi (der mit als ob eingeleiteten Sätzen ist Conj. Praes. und Conj. Praet. gleichberechtigt; unter Umständen entscheidet persönliche Liebhaberei."W. G. Meinke, "The Use of als ob (als wenn) Clauses," GQ, XXVIII, 47–49. Cf. the rejoinders by C. P. Hornberger and B. Ulvestad, pp. 256–62 of the same volume.The material has been gathered from the following books: (1) Stefan Andres, Bruder Lucifer (Düsseldorf/ Köln, 1950); (2) Walter Bauer, Das Geschenk der Ferne (Gütersloh, 1947); (3) Werner Bergengruen, Der Großtyrann und das Gericht (München, 1949); (4) Wolfgang Borchert, An diesem Dienstag (Hamburg-Stuttgart, 1948); (5) Gertrud Fussenegger,... Wie Gleichst Du dem Wasser (München, 1949); (6) Gerd Gaiser, Eine Stimme hebt an (München, 1950); (7) Albrecht Goes, Unruhige Nacht (New York, 1955); (8) Curt Goetz, Die Tote von Beverly Hills (Berlin-Grünewald, 1952); (9) Manfred Hausmann, Lampioon (Bremen, 1949); (10) Bernt von Heiseler, Vera Holm (Gütersloh, 1950); (11) August Hinrichs, Das Licht der Heimat (Bremen, 1954); (12) Ernst Jünger, Besuch auf Godenholm (Frankfurt a/M, 1952); (13) Johannes Kirschweng, Der ausgeruhte Vetter (München, 1946); (14) Horst Lange, Das Lied des Pirols (München, 1946); (15) Steffi Lehmann, Heimkehr des Herzens (Berlin, 1951); (16) Hans Leip, Jan Himp und die Kleine Brise (Hamburg, 1949); (17) Hans Erich Nossack, Dorothea (Hamburg, 1948); (18) Luise Rinser, Die Gläsernen Ringe (Berlin, 1949); (19) Eugen Roth, Das Schweizerhäusl (München, 1950); (20) Reinhold Schneider, Die gerettete Krone (München, 1948); (21) Ludwig Tügel, Lerke (Stuttgart, 1951); (22) Karl Waggerl, Fröhliche Armut (Salzburg, 1951); (23) Günther Weisenborn, Das Mädchen von Fanö (Bremen, 1949); (24) Stefan Zweig, Die Welt von Gestern (Wien, 1952). The first number after a cited QC refers to the number in parentheses preceding each book on this list, the second number refers to page. Thus, 17.53 refers to Nossack, Dorothea, p. 53.For a discussion of this method see my article, "An Approach to Describing Usage of Variants in Language," Indiana University Publications in Anthropology and Linguistics, Memoir XII (Baltimore, 1956), 37–59. In this article, I elaborate a set of syntactical "rules" in terms of regular habits.Cf. R. Blümel, Einführung in die Syntax (Heidelberg, 1914), pp. 119–131, and Die Haupttypen der heutigen neuhochdeutschen Wortstellung im Hauptsatz (Strassburg, 1914); W. Meyer-Eppler, "Zur Anwendung informationstheoretischer Methoden auf sprachliche Probleme," Zeitschr. für Phonetik, VII, 33.L. Bloomfield, Language (New York, 1933), p. 46.The connective wie als in this sentence may be considered a variant of als, but this QS is clearly different from one of the following type, where the adverb so is part of the GC: Es war mehr so, als hielte sich etwas an ihrem Beine fest (17.144). Therefore, it was felt advisable to treat the two connectives als and wie als as distinct.It is in most cases very difficult to tell which dialect region an author belongs to, since the places of birth, of childhood, of studies and work rarely are within the same linguistic area. The places of birth and childhood have been chosen as criteria here, in spite of the obvious arbitrariness of such a choice.From the tabulations found in D. Seivers, The Usage of the Subjunctive Mood in the Novels of Modern German Authors, unpubl. diss. (Seattle, 1954), the following rather similar percentage ratios can be established: als, 70.7%; als ob, 26.7%; als wann, 2.6%. No other conjunctions are listed by Miss Seivers, whose material is based on the works of six authors (one book by each). This frequency primacy of als is possibly the basis for such value judgments as the following one found in E. Koelwel, Guter deutscher Stil (Berlin, 1947), pp. 70–71: "Hier nur wenige Proben [of "wrong" QSs] aus einer langen Reihe: 'Es will scheinen, als wenn man von bestimmter Seite aus bestrebt ist ... ' statt 'als wenn man bestrebt sei' oder noch besser 'als sei man bestrebt.'" The last value judgment here clearly refers to the choice of conjunction only.For this information I am indebted to my former colleagues in the Department of German at Indiana University, and in particular to Dr. Kurt Blohm of Oldenburg and Katharina Kleininger of Mannheim, the latter a schoolteacher. Both have traveled widely in Germany and lived in many different cities. One may also note the fact that als ob is the only quasi conjunction used in J. K. Moulton and W. G. Moulton, Spoken German (New York, 1944).Deutsche Syntax, III, 282. Miss Kleininger and Dr. Blohm agree with Behaghel on this point. Also in modern dialect studies one occasionally does find statements to the effect that als ob is rare, e.g., E. Labouvie, Studien zur Syntax der Mundart von Dillingen an der Saar (Marburg, 1938), p. 159.O. Schinnerer, Beginning German (New York, 1936), p. 195.According to Doctor Blohm and Miss Kleininger (see fn. 13).I Mose xxix. 20; xxxii. 10; III Mose xiii. 2; xiv. 35; Josua viii. 15; I Sam. x. 27; II Sam. i. 21; I Könige xviii. 41; II Könige i. 16; II Chronica v. 13; Hiob xxxv. 14; xc. 10; Prediger iii. 18; viii. 14; Jesaia viii. 11; x. 15; xl. 24; Jeremia i. 17; xiv. 8; xxxiii. 24; xlviii. 9, 27; li. 14; Klagel. iii. 34, 36; Hesek. x. 10; Daniel ii. 30; iii. 25; Obad. i. 16; Habak. i. 8; iii. 14; Matth. xxviii. 4; Marc. viii. 24; ix. 26; Luc. xvi. 1; xx. 20; xxiv. 11; Apostel. ii. 3; iii. 12; xvii. 18; xxiii. 15, 20; xxviii. 19; I Korinth iv. 18; vii. 29; xi. 5; II Korinth. x. 2, 9, 14; xi. 21; I Thessal. ii. 4; I Petri ii. 16; I Joh. ii. 21; Ebräer xi. 27; Offenb. Xiii. 3.V Mose xix. 5; I Sam. xx. 20; II Sam. xvi. 23; xviii. 3; Jesaia xvii. 5; xxiv. 13; xxix. 12, 16; xxx. 14, 29; xxxvii. 3; lxv. 8; Arnos v. 19; Marc. iv. 26. One may notice that only six QCs introduced by als wenn are found outside of Jesaia. Some inferences which can be drawn from this will be discussed in a later paper, where some further syntactical peculiarities in Jesaia will be examined.Jeremaia xxx. 14; Offenb. v. 6.I Mose xxvii. 12; und ich wirde vor ihm geachtet, als ob ich ihn betrügen wollte, und brächte über mich einen Fluch, und nicht einen Segen.Jesaia xxiv. 13 (cf. fn. 18 above).II Könige ix. 20.W. Mitzka, Handbuch zum deutschen Sprachatlas (Marburg, 1952), p. 69. Cf. A. Bach, Deutsche Mundartforschung, 2nd. ed. (Heidelberg, 1950), p. 54, and O. Weise, "Uber den gegenwärtigen Stand der Forschung auf dem Gebiet der Syntax deutscher Mundarten," GRM, I, 744 f.Seivers, p. 53.Cf. G. Wustmann's criticism of such Schattenbilder, as he calls them, in his Sprachdummheiten, 12th ed. (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1949), p. 118.Also the two QCs cited as indicative by Seivers, p. 53, contain tense-shift (past to present) and are, in my opinion, tobe counted as subjunctive Qcs.Cf. Homberger, p. 259 (see fn. 5 above).Erdmann, p. 154 (see fn. 3 above). Cf. T. Matthias, Sprachleben und Sprachschäden, 5th ed. (Leipzig, 1921), p. 296, where several indicative QCs taken from newspapers are cited.H. Falk and E. W. Selmer, Tysk Grammatikk (Oslo, 1934), p. 138 (translation mine), and G. O. Curme, A Grammar of the German Language, 2nd ed., 7th printing (New York, 1952), p. 232.Ulvestad, "The Tense-forms of the Subjunctive in Indirect Discource in Modern German," as yet unpublished manuscript.Erdmann, p. 153.Meinke, pp. 48–49. Cf. T. Matthias, Kleiner Wegweiser durch die Schwankungen und Schwierigkeiten des deutschen Sprachgebrauchs, 2nd ed. (Leipzig, 1899), pp. 121–22.Matthias, Sprachleben, p. 389.H. Glinz, Die innere Form des Deutschen (Bern, 1952), p. iv. Cf. W. Havers, Handbuch der erklärenden Syntax (Heidelberg, 1934), p. 17.Meinke, p. 47

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