German es – a Construction Grammar approach

Abstract

AbstractIn German, neutral pronoun, es which corresponds to English it, is said to be used in addition to pronominal uses without any reference. In the tradition of German linguistics, non-referential es has been treated as a formal subject or an expletive that has only syntactic function and no meaning. In this paper, this view is challenged and es is regarded as a construction as a pair of syntactic form and meaning in the sense of Goldberg’s Construction Grammar. According to syntactic differences, non-referential es is classified into three types. In the analysis the semantic characteristics of these types are discussed. Type 1 expresses an objective indication of the existence/occurrence of a spontaneous event, Type 2 expresses an objective indication of the existence/occurrence of a spontaneous event for the experiencer expressed by dative, and Type 3 expresses an indication of the existence/occurrence of a new subject referent in a single episodic event. These constructions are sometimes extended to creative uses. Finally, a unitary account of these constructions is proposed and the correlation is summarized. German es with no specific reference is thus understood as a construction family which shares an objective construal.