The category of subject and grammatical constructions in German and English

Abstract

This paper explores how the subject prominent features in a given language are correlated with the grammaticalization of syntactic rules within the Germanic typology. Drawing relevant data from German and English this research focuses on the grammatical constructions such as morphologically case-marked constructions, passive constructions, clause-union constructions and raising constructions. In this functional typological study, it is demonstrated that the subject-centered English type constructions can be interpreted as extreme cases even within the Germanic typology. Furthermore, it is claimed that prominence typology does not have to be viewed as a discrete dichotomy and that it is rather a gradable concept.