Syntactic expletive

A Expletivum (also Expletiv, derived from the Latin expleo, that is, complement, complete ) is a pronoun - the pronoun it in German - which is used exclusively for the sake of correct sentence construction, but no substantive reference to an object or a person has.

Set position

In many languages ​​( including English and French), it is imperative that a word occupies the position of the subject. This is true even if the action described does not provide for actors who could be standardized question. Such problems are typically found at the following Verbkategorien:

• Verbs like " seem " or " wonder " (English: " It Seems that" )
• Existential statements ( "there is", French: " il ya" )
• Verbs for weather phenomena ( " it's snowing "; " it's raining " ), or other characteristics of an entire environment ( "It stinks ").

Expletive in German

The German expletives knows a pronoun it, which is required by individual verbs as grammatical subject (especially weather verbs like rain ). However, there is no grammatically prescribed subject- Expletiv as in other languages ​​; in sentences that have no subject of general grammatical reasons, as in the impersonal passive, is constructed entirely subjectless in German:

Not allowed to smoke here * not: Smoking is not allowed it here However, there are in German, a special Expletiv to occupy the apron in a Verbzweitsatz:

We love to laugh.   Can now be laughed at? * Not Must be laughed it now? Because of this it can not be in a block inside, it is not a subject expletives, as in the case of verbs of the type rain (Test: If it rains - Yes, it's raining? . ). As an alternative to " ramp it " can in English in some cases also the particle "da " are used.

• See also: subject ( grammar) # The subject in the structure of the sentence

Expletiva in Konstituententests

At Konstituententests occur when using Expletiva problems. The Expletivum "it" may be in German at the beginning of a sentence and after the verb, or be separated by an adverb from the verb.

It seems a constituent, ie to be an independent set of unit. Contradicted by the fact that it is not fully convertible:

Also, substitution, question and coordination test will fail:

It follows that not all tests need to turn out positive, so that a sequence of words is considered constituent. The tests do not constitute a necessary condition