Re: CONLANG Digest - 28 Sep 2003 to 29 Sep 2003 (#2003-275)

> Date:    Mon, 29 Sep 2003 12:46:29 -0400
> From:    Harald Stoiber <stoiberh@...>
> Subject: Re: OT: German "Satz"
>
> On Mon, 29 Sep 2003 17:33:28 +0200, Andreas Johansson <andjo@...> wrote:
>
> >A li'l question on German terminology for the lists linguistically
> enlightened
> >germanophones: The word _Satz_ can mean both "sentence" and "clause"; how
> do
> >you differentiate when necessary? I asked the teacher of my so-called
>
> "Satz" alone is not precise since it can refer to an entire
> utterance AND it can also refer to a particular clause of an
> utterance.
>
> "Hauptsatz" would be the main clause where there is also a
> relative clause (which whould be named "Relativsatz", sometimes
> also "Gliedsatz" since it refers to a syntactical position
> [Satzglied] of its parent clause). "Nebensatz" is the most
> general term for whatever subordinate clause or inserted
> clause between hyphens.
>
> I hope this helps a little bit. :-))
Thanks. So there's no way to refer unambiguously to a sentence. That's some
poor design if you ask me! And German's supposed to be the language of
philosophical clarity ... ? :)

(Re: your corrected definition of _Hauptsatz_, I actually already knew that.
Thanks anyway for trying to help)

                                                       Andreas