GENITIVE AND NOUN GROUPS IN THE SWISS VERSION OF THE GERMAN LANGUAGE

Abstract

The disappearance of inflexion -es from the noun groups denoting quantity or measure (eine Tasse Tees > eine Tasse Tee) is in the focus of the article. In the groups without distribution partitive genitive was dropped in the XVIII century already. However, the genitive remains in the groups extended by attributes. In contemporary German there are several syntactic types of such groups. Groups with attribution can be formed by means of the genitive case (ein Glas warmer Milch), prepositions (Hunderte von jungen Mädchen), cordination of both nouns in case (einen Becher heißen Tee) and attachment (mit einem Strauß schöne Blumen). A corpus of examples from the press of Switzerland is adduced in the article to demonstrate the dependence of syntactic construction on the semantics of nouns denoting quantity. All quantitative nouns have been divided into three groups: Squant 1 noun by the designation of the numbers (Paar, Dutzend, Hundert, Drittel …); Squant 2 + Ssg and Squant 2 + Spl noun c by the designation of a measure and quantity (Gramm, Liter, Pfund, Stück, Glas, Flasche…); Squant 3 the noun, designating totalities of the living beings and objects (Gruppe, Mannschaft, Herde, Schaar, Schwarm, Bukett, Strauß). The study has showed that not only has the genitive not disappeared from the analyzed groups but it also remains in certain cases a predominant form of subordination.