Reflection of the Time Model Through German Derivational Structures

Abstract

The research paper aims to show the potential of word-formation models of the German language representing the interrelation between the two most significant constituents of the picture of the world – the concepts of the LIVING BEING and TIME. The analysis is carried out on the material of substantive composite words, i.e. verbal representatives of the propositional structure AKTOR – SITUATION/PRADIKAT (SITUATION) – ZEIT/ACTOR – SITUATION/PREDICATE (SITUATION) – TIME, coupled with the models of the German language N+N, N+N(v), A+N. Nouns generated on the basis of a given mental structure is supposed to model the idea of activities and the life cycle of wild life objects, as well as of abstract and inanimate entities to which a person attributes anthropomorphic properties. A special substance, the activity of which is correlated with a specific fragment, a segment in the cyclic time model is stated to be cognitively distinguished in the conceptual structure of such a name. The paper under study particularly emphasises the fact that natural phenomena, flora and fauna species receive temporary characteristics taking into account their natural cycles, whereas acyclic situations that break stereotypical ideas about the time of human activity/passivity are considered part of the nomination sphere of a man’s activities. In the process of modelling knowledge about the existence of all things in the world, a great number of temporal nominees in the class of modern German nouns linked to this propositional structure is proved to indicate the informative and communicative significance of such language units.