On the event structures of -ung nominals in German

Abstract

This paper deals with one of the most productive word-formation patterns in German: -ung nominals denoting events, such as Entdeckung or Erblindung. They are derived by attaching the suffix -ung to a verb stem. Not all of these derivations are grammatical, a fact that has often been related to the inherent temporal properties (the Aktionsart) of the base verb. It can easily be shown, however, that verbs belonging to one and the same Aktionsart sometimes allow the derivation of an -ung nominal and sometimes do not. For instance, die Erblindung des Mannes the man's becoming blind', corresponding to the sentence der Mann erblindet the man becomes blind', is possible, whereas *die Erbluhung der Rose the blossoming of the rose', corresponding to the sentence die Rose erbluht the rose begins to blossom', is not. But the two verbs, erblinden and erbluhen, belong to the same class of inchoative verbs. In this paper, I will suggest a different analysis of the inherent event structure of verbs, one that allows a more appropriate prediction of grammatical and ungrammatical derivations. Furthermore, it is argued that -ung nominalization preserves the event structure of the underlying verb but makes it accessible for modification on the syntactical level.