Formally-Two-Particle Proposals: Ellipse of the Subject
F. A. Kulaeva and L. B. Abdulvakhabova
Chechen State University, Grozny, Russia
Keywords: Sentence, Subject, Indefinite-Personal and Impersonal Pronoun.
Abstract: A special, rather extensive group of sentences consists of formally two-part constructions or, as they are also
called, unfounded elliptic sentences. This group of sentences is represented by indefinite-personal and
generalized-personal structures with the pronoun man and impersonal sentences with the pronoun es. It is
characteristic that in the Russian language, indefinite-personal and generalized-personal constructions are
distinguished as two separate types of unambiguous sentences, due to their different design. In German
grammars, however, they are not distinguished as separate types of sentences, attention is paid only to the
shades of meanings within the general group of indefinite-personal constructions. Some grammars, such as
Kleine deutsche Grammatik (W. Jung), are completely silent about structures with man. Most likely, this is
because there are no formal differences between indefinite-personal and generalized-personal structures in
German. In this article, we will try to compare formal two-part sentences in German and Russian, consider
their use cases, and identify their similarities and differences.
1 INTRODUCTION
The term ellipse comes from the Greek (élleipsis) and
means absence, deficiency or even omission. In
linguistics, this means skipping parts of a sentence.
The very translation of the word indicates that one of
its components is missing in the sentence (Valgina,
2003). Elliptical omissions can be reconstructed using
linguistic or situational context. In an elliptical
sentence, any component may be missing, sometimes
even an essential part of the sentence, but the ellipse
is always clear. For example: Je früher der Abschied
[ist], desto kürzer [ist] die Qual;
Erst [kommt] die Arbeit, dann [kommt] das Geld.
[Das] Ende [ist] gut, alles [ist] gut! or [Wenn das]
Ende gut [ist], [ist] alles gut!
(Ist) Noch jemand (hier) ohne Fahrschein?
Je schneller [du hier bist], um so besser.
[Ich wünsche dir einen] Guten Morgen!
[Ich bitte Sie um] Entschuldigung!
[Möchten Sie] Sonst noch was?
Representatives of linguistic schools of different
periods and trends believe that the omission of a noun
in the language system is used to save language
resources, for the convenience of utterance. Today,
when globalization processes are rapidly taking place
in the world and the Internet plays a huge role in
human communication, the form of oral and written
speech in different languages is actively changing.
Saving language means helps the perception of a
large amount of information. In this regard, the study
of elliptical sentences becomes especially relevant.
The relevance of comparing German elliptical
constructions with Russian ones is dictated by the
difficulties our students face when using and
translating these constructions (Jung, 2013).
The phenomenon of the ellipse is the subject of
separate works of many linguists. G. Paul is one of
the first who touches upon the phenomenon of the
principle of economy of words in the language. For
example, in the chapter "Economy of Language
Means" of his work "Principles of the History of
Language" he argues that economy in language
occurs primarily at the level of syntactic units. Most
often, this happens in colloquial speech, namely, in
dialogue.
The German linguist S.Bally believes that the
expression of thought using all the necessary nouns
would make human communication unbearable. In
fact, the economy of language means does not
negatively affect the content of a particular statement.
Simply, conversational speech occurs most often
spontaneously, they do not prepare for it in advance,
it depends on the situation, the context (Golden pen:
German, 1974). In a situational ellipse, there is most
often no subject, expressed in grammar by the
Kulaeva, F. and Abdulvakhabova, L.
Formally-Two-Particle Proposals. Ellipse of the Subject.
DOI: 10.5220/0011607500003577
In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Actual Issues of Linguistics, Linguodidactics and Intercultural Communication (TLLIC 2022), pages 87-91
ISBN: 978-989-758-655-2
Copyright
c
2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
87
pronoun of the first person singular. For example:
wünsche dir alles Gute (Ich wünsche dir alles Gute);
möchte mit dir über dieses Problem sprechen (Ich
möchte mit dir über dieses Problem sprechen) (Wolf,
1930). The subject ellipse in dialogic speech is quite
productive, since questions and answers in a dialogue
are always interconnected, the answer depends
directly on the content of the question. Here, the
speaker hopes that the listener should understand him
from the context.
Materials and methods: As a practical research
material, this work uses examples from the works of
German writers (H. Heine, B. Kellermann, Fr. Wolf,
W. Bredel). The article uses the following research
methods:
− the method of continuous sampling of the
analyzed practical material,
− method of comparative analysis,
− method of interpretation.
2 MAIN PART
Compared to Russian, there are a number of features
in German, due to which a subject must be present in
a German sentence. A sentence is a psychological act
of connecting representations. But since the
connection is impossible without the presence of at
least two elements, then any construction, as an
expression of this act, also consists of at least two
parts (Kellermann, 1980). This means that the
sentence must be two-part in its structure. Personal
sentences are always two-part, the presence of a
subject in them corresponds to their semantic
structure. But in German, both indefinitely personal
and impersonal constructions can look two-part. The
indefinite personal pronoun man and the impersonal
pronoun es, which are necessarily present in such
sentences, come to the aid of their two-part structure.
It is known that neither man nor es denote any specific
person or thing, although they act as the subject of a
sentence. Accordingly, the two-part nature of such
constructions will be considered formal. Man
performs only a formal function in sentences of an
indefinite personal or generalized personal nature.
Wie spricht man das Wort aus?
Man denkt heute anders daruber.
Man schlug das Fenster zu.
Man verlangte sein Geld zuruck.
The pronoun es is exceptional in its meaning. It
has more functions than any other pronoun in German
grammar. We will consider its impersonal meaning.
For example: 1) its use with verbs describing weather
phenomena - "es schneit", "es donnert", "es blitzt",
"es ist sonnig", "es ist bewölkt", "es ist windig"; 2)
with verbs describing personal or sensory
impressions, when the protagonist is not defined - „Es
riecht gut in der Küche.“ (etwas riecht gut), „ Es wird
mir schlecht”, „ Es freut mich, dass du kommst“; 3)
with the verbs "sein" and "werden" - "Es wird besser",
"Es wird kalt", "Es ist schon spät"; 4) when indicating
the time, day and seasons - "Es ist Herbst", "Es ist 7
Uhr", "Es sind Winterferien"; 4) in some fixed
phrases and expressions - "Es geht mir gut", "Es geht
mir gut", "Ich habe es eilig", "Es tut mir Leid", etc.
Es indicates the removal of the subject from both
speech and thought. There are a small number of
impersonal sentences in German that do not use the
impersonal pronoun es (mich friert, hier wird
gearbeitet, etc.), but they do not have an impersonal
meaning either (Heine, 2010).
Unlike German, in Russian both indefinitely
personal and impersonal constructions belong to one-
part sentences. They do not have a subject and in this
they coincide with their semantic structure.
In indefinite personal sentences, a specific actor is
not called, although in reality it exists. It may not be
called for various reasons: the speaker may not know
who specifically performs the action, or does not want
to name it for some reason.
In impersonal constructions, the subject is not
present, because the person performing the action is
also absent in reality. Es is used as a formal subject in
impersonal structures. In impersonal constructions,
there is no specific actor or object that could be
discussed. Es war schwül wie seit Tagen, es
wetterleuchtete manchmal und regnete etwas (Golden
pen: German, 1974).
madam! Ich habe es im Französischen weit
gebracht! (Heine, 2010) The impersonal pronoun es
itself is not translated into Russian, and the whole
construction is translated using equivalent words,
most often also impersonal. For example: Es wild
Tag. / It's getting light. Es ist fruh. / Early. Es regnet.
/ It's raining.
Es can be used as a substitute for a noun, for
example: Das Auto ist rot. Es ist Ferrari, and as a
replacement for a whole set of words, for example:
"Was macht unsere Tochter?" - "Ich weiß es nicht."
This is done in order not to repeat the whole statement
again. After all, from the context it is already clear
what it is about. (“Ich weiß nicht, was unsere Tochter
macht”). Sometimes es is used to replace an adjective,
but this is not as common. „Meine Mutter ist sehr
jung. Deine ist es nothing” (Wolf, 1930).
Es can also be used as an adjective, in which a
natural phenomenon is considered as a state of rest.
Es war noch sehr früh, als ich das Haus verließ.
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Da wird es auch schon fühlbar kälter. Es wild
Abend. (Heine, 2010)
"Oh, was für ein entsetzlicher Winter, schon
wieder scheint es." (Kellermann, 1980)
In impersonal sentences denoting sensations,
feelings, etc. es is also present. For example: Es
wurde ihm schwindlig. Es war ihm schwül
geworden...
Ein leises trauriges Lied klang eines Abends
durch meine Seele. Mich frostelte... (Kellermann,
1980)
Es can also replace part of a sentence, for
example, the action: "Maria du solltest doch das
Geschirr abwaschen!" - "Warum hast du es noch nicht
gemacht?" ") (Moskalskaja, 2004).
Es is often used as a subject with impersonal verbs
denoting natural phenomena: Die Luft ist kühl und es
dunkelt. (Heine, 2010)
Es in impersonal sentences with passive verbs can
only take the initial position. Es wurde an der Tür
geklopft. / There was a knock on the door.
From what has been said, it follows that Russian
one-part (non-subject) constructions correspond to
German two-part sentences with a formal subject. For
example: They ask about your father. Man fragt nach
deinem Vater.
This book is often talked about. Uber dieses Buch
spricht man oft.
It was warm. Es war warm.
Soon it began to get dark. Bald begann es zu
dunkeln.
From a comparative point of view, formal two-
part sentences with the subject man are especially
attractive. In German grammar textbooks, they are
usually presented as indefinitely personal sentences.
Quite remarkable is the peculiarity of the ambiguous
attitude to the character of the protagonist of these
constructions - man plus the verb in the third person
singular. These constructions, with absolutely the
same external design (man plus subject and predicate
in the third person Singular) and performing the same
general task, give us the opportunity not to name a
specific character. The listener himself
unambiguously completes what has already been
given to a complete sentence and thereby understands
the speaker. They can refer to the character of an
unnamed person both in an indefinitely personal and
generalized personal sense. In indefinite personal
sentences, the person is not named, because the
speaker does not know or does not want, due to some
circumstances, to name him. In generalized-personal
sentences, the person has a generalized character. It
all depends on the circumstances, the action can be
attributed to any person.
In Russian, these two types of constructions are
formed differently and, accordingly, are two separate
types of non-two-part constructions. The difference in
these two types of sentences is felt, first of all, in the
form of the predicate: in indefinite personal
constructions, the predicate is expressed by the verb
in the form of the third person plural. There is no
subject at all in such sentences. In generalized
personal sentences, sometimes the corresponding
pronoun acts as the subject. The predicate in such
sentences is a verb in the second person singular or
plural. For example (Bredel, 1963): 1) Man sagte dir
davon. / You were told about it.
2) Wenn man Gesundheit haben will, muß man
viel Sport treiben.
If you want to be healthy, you must (should) do a
lot of sports.
3) Was man säet, das wird man ernten. / What
goes around comes around.
As you can see, one German construction
expressing two different meanings corresponds to
two separate Russian sentences.
In German generalized personal constructions, the
subject man can correspond to "generalized" objects.
Such additions are expressed by the pronoun einen,
einem. The presence of these objects in German
sentences is mandatory, as well as man as a subject.
When translated into Russian, it can be equivalent to
the pronoun of the second person singular in all cases,
except for the nominative.
Die Stadt Düsseldorf ist sehr schön, und wenn
man in der Ferne an siedenkt und zufällig dort
geboren ist, wird einem wunderlich zumute. The city
of Düsseldorf is very beautiful, and when you think
of it in a foreign land, being by chance a native of it,
your soul becomes somehow vague.(Heine, 2010)
Man constructions are very often used as stylistic
synonyms for personal structures. Here man
expresses concrete persons known to us from the
context, i.e. mentioned earlier in the conversation.
Such a replacement of personal pronouns is a frequent
phenomenon in the German language, we can observe
it both in colloquial speech and in the language of
fiction. In colloquial speech, man most often
corresponds to the first or second person.
Indefinite personal and generalized personal
structures in Russian in some cases correlate with the
meaning of personal constructions, but not as often as
in German. Probably, this may be due to the non-
uniformity of these constructions in German and their
non-two-part structure in Russian.
Am Morgen muss man fruh aufstehen.
You have to get up early in the morning. Or: In
the morning (we) need to get up early.
Formally-Two-Particle Proposals. Ellipse of the Subject
89
Man will doch etwas freie Zeit haben. / After all
(I) want to have some free time.
Man ist schließlich auch Mensch. /After all, I'm
human too.
Man sieht sich ja kaum. / After all, we hardly see
each other.
Hier darf man nicht laut sprechen./ Here (we)
cannot speak loudly (Duden, 2004).
Such sentences are translated into Russian using
personal pronouns, since the person is determined by
the context. Students usually do it easily. Things are
more complicated when using einen and einem, and
even man as a generalized person, since students are
used to translating man into Russian in the third
person plural. When conveying the generalized
personal meaning of the sentence, students correlate
them with similar constructions of the Russian
language, using the predicate in the second person
singular. For example: You look at this house and
wonder... / Du schaust dir das Haus an...
In some cases, structures with man are
synonymous with impersonal-passive constructs.
They are related to the actions of specific individuals.
For example: Ich verbrachte diese drei Monaten
im Erholungsheim. Es wurde gebadet und
geschwommen, abends getanzt. / I spent these three
months in a sanatorium (Man badete, man schwam,
abends tanzte man.) ... (We) bathed, swam, danced in
the evenings.
Wo gehobelt wird, fallen Späne. (Wo man Holz
haut, fallen Späne.) / They cut the forest - chips fly.
Due to the differences that exist between German
and Russian language constructions, our students face
a lot of difficulties. They are used to using
indefinitely personal and impersonal constructions,
according to their content, without the presence of a
subject. Often mistakes are made with the omission
of man and es. Most often this happens in subordinate
constructions and when a minor member is at the
beginning of a sentence, for example:
Anläßlich dieses großen Tages veranstaltete ein
Feuerwerk. (Anläßlich dieses großen Tages
veranstaltete man ein Feuerwerk.
Wir beschlossen Rast zu machen, da schon spät
wurde. Instead: Wir beschlossen Rast zu machen, da
es schon spät wurde (Moskalskaja, 2004).
Results and discussions: The study revealed: 1.
Elliptical sentences are used in communication to
save language resources. Those parts of the sentences
that can be understood from the context and can be
easily restored if necessary are omitted.
2. In German, the subject ellipse is extremely rare.
For example: 1) the subject expressed by a noun can
rarely be omitted. This type of incomplete sentences
are most often found when talking about religious
topics: Behütel!;
2) the subject expressed by the pronoun of the 1st
person: danke, bitte, weiß wohl, etc. Such sentences
are used mainly in colloquial language and in literary,
imitating folk speech;
3) the subject, object, circumstance are often
incompletely presented when the noun with an
adjective or with an attributive genitive is omitted as
quite understandable: Er hat neuen getrunken (Wein)
or Es gibt junge Damen, die nie dreißig überschreiten;
4) the ellipse takes place both in the main and in
the subordinate clause, and sometimes in both at the
same time: Wie gewonnen, so zerronnen. Gesagt,
getan. Jung gewohnt, alt getan. In most cases, these
are colloquial expressions and phraseological turns.
They cannot be considered incomplete sentences in
terms of completeness and clarity of expression of
meaning; on the part of their formal composition,
these are stereotyped phrases fixed in language
practice, clichés of address, greetings, wishes, etc.
3. In Russian, quite often, if the context allows,
there is a loss of the subject expressed by a personal
pronoun. Most often this happens in dialogic speech,
if the subject coincides in the main and subordinate
clauses, for example: "Will he go with you? - (Yes),
he will go. Did you know about this? - (Yes), knew,
etc.. When the full form of the answer to such a
question must necessarily use the statement "yes", in
the answer where the subject is omitted, you can not
use this statement, for example: "Are you informed
about this? - Informed", when with a full answer:
"Are you informed about this? “Yes, we are
informed.” The use of such “non-subjective”
sentences is almost impossible in German in response
to questions without a question word, for example:
Wissen Sie darüber? - Ja? wir wissen. Sind sie
eingeladen? - Ja, sie sind eingeladen. Of course, we
can sometimes only answer "Ja" or "Nein", but this
form of answers is not accepted in German. In
response to interrogative sentences with a question
word, things are different. Here we can afford to omit
the subject, for example: Warum willst du schon
gehen? - Habe viel zu tun. Was ist dir passiert? - Habe
Kopfschmerzen (Bredel, 1963).
4. In German, there are also monomeric verb
sentences. In terms of their functional significance,
they act mainly as incentive proposals or proposals
containing wishes, congratulations, greetings, etc. In
addition to the forms of the verb in the second person
singular and plural, non-binary verbal incentive
constructions can be expressed by the infinitive,
participle. For example: 1) "Aufmachen!" dröhnte der
TLLIC 2022 - I INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE "ACTUAL ISSUES OF LINGUISTICS, LINGUODIDACTICS AND
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION"
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Vater und versetzte der Tür einen Faustschlag
(Kellermann, 1980);
2) Leutnant: Antreten! Einsteigen! aber ein
bißchen plötzlich! Aussteigen! Ein - Aus - Ein - Aus
- Ein - Aus! (Golden pen, 1974); or, for example:
Angetreten! Alles in Stellung! ...kommendiert der
Hauptmann. Hinlegen! Laden und Sichern! (Golden
pen, 1974);
3) Die Leute des Kommandanten waren
angetreten. Braunewell! Herhoren! (Kellermann,
1980).
4) Rube (singt) ... Denn die Stiefelwichse kann
man gut entbehren: Stillgestanden! Abgezahlt! Or, for
example, take a negative sentence: Hilda: Paul!
Fliegerüber die Stadt! Gas! Nichtrennen. (Golden
pen, 1974).
3 CONCLUSIONS
So, having compared the formal two-part sentences in
German and Russian, we came to the conclusion that
in German the presence of both the subject, albeit
formal, and the predicate is mandatory. In Russian,
the presence of a character is not necessary, there are
so-called indefinite-personal constructions such as:
Do, write, etc. For example: They say it will rain
today. In German, the subject in such structures is
expressed by the indefinite personal pronoun man or
the impersonal pronoun es. One German indefinitely
personal construction expressing two different
meanings corresponds to two separate Russian
sentences - indefinitely personal and generalized
personal.
German subordinate clauses always have a
subject. In Russian, when the subject coincides in the
main and subordinate clauses, the subject falls out in
the subordinate clause. For example: Your parents
could not come because they were ill. Ihre Grßeltern
konnten nicht kommen, weil sie krank wurden. Such
sentences give students difficulties in translating,
most often they translate them with the omission of
the subject. Sie konnten nicht kommen, weil krank
wurden.
REFERENCES
Valgina, N. S., 2003. Modern Russian language: Syntax. p.
416.
Jung, W., 2013. German Grammar. p. 243.
Golden pen: German, Austrian and Swiss poetry in Russian
translations (1812-1970), 1974.
Wolf, F., 1930. Das trojanische Pferd. p.124.
Heine, H., 2010. Idea. Das Buch Le Grand. p.385.
Kellermann, B., 1980. Der 9. November. p. 162.
Moskalskaja, O. I., 2004. Grammatik der deutschen
Gegenwartssprache. p. 352.
Bredel, W., 1963. Fünfzig Tage. p. 78.
Duden, K., 2004 Duden - Foreign Dictionary. p. 824.
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