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In
this section, we will try to develop a strategy for attacking
sentences like this one from Kafka's novella Die Verwandlung
(The Metamorphosis):
Er
lag auf seinem panzerartig harten Rücken und sah, wenn
er den Kopf ein wenig hob, seinen gewölbten, braunen,
von bogenförmigen Versteifungen geteilten Bauch, auf
dessen Höhe sich die Bettdecke, zum gänzlichen Niedergleiten
bereit, kaum noch erhalten konnte.
Commas
Commas actually do the hardest work for you, because
in German, any two clauses are usually separated by a comma.
Thus, the commas separate the sentence into its component
parts for you. The chief exception is
that clauses joined by und or oder are only
separated by commas if they are both complete main clauses
(i.e. both include a subject and a verb).
Sie
fuhren nach Hause und sahen einander dann stundenlang in die
Augen [no comma: 2nd clause omits subject]
They drove home and then looked in each
other's eyes for hours
Sie
gingen nach Hause, und sie kochten Barney [use a comma:
both are complete main clauses]
Wir
essen Barney, wenn er tot ist und wenn er gar ist [no comma
after und because a subordinate clause follows]
We will eat Barney if he is dead and
if he is done [in the sense of: cooked]
Since
these combinations of sentences with coordinating conjunctions
cause little confusion, we will ignore them; our method will
be to separate the sentence into the pieces determined by the
commas.
Semicolons
These
separate parts of the sentence which could be complete sentences
on their own. One can therefore investigate the two parts
independently.
What
can we expect to find?
Commas can indicate the following:
...the
main clause(s) (verb in second position).
...subordinate
clauses (verb in final position).
... relative clauses (these are a type of subordinate
clause).
...infinitive
clauses. These consist of an infinitive with object(s),
or modifier(s), or both):
Ich
habe keine Zeit, den Hund zu baden
I have no time to bathe the dog
(object)
Wie
bringt ihr es fertig, so schnell und so elegant zu
essen und gleichzeitig fernzusehen?
How do you manage to eat so quickly
and so elegantly and to watch TV at the same time?
(modifiers)
Recall
the subordinating conjunctions
um...zu = in order to ohne...zu = without...
[doing X] (an)statt...zu = instead of [doing X]
Hunde
leben, um zu essen
Dogs live in order to eat
Wenige
Leute gehen in Deutschland spazieren, ohne in Hundemist
zu treten
Few people go for a walk in Germany
without stepping in dog mess
Anstatt
sich diszipliniert zu duschen, liegen Katzen herum
und lecken sich sauber
Instead of showering in a disciplined
manner, cats lie around and lick themselves clean
...appositions.
These describe a noun, but contain no verbs (this distinguishes
them from relative clauses). They are in the same case as the
noun:
Rex,
der hungrigste Hund der Welt, verlor plötzlich
seinen Appetit.
Rex, the hungriest dog in the world,
suddenly lost his appetite.
Lisa,
seine Besitzerin, hatte sein Essen in die Badewanne
gestellt.
Lisa, his owner, had put his
food in the bathtub.
Ich
gebe Rex, dem hungrigsten Hund der Welt, einen Knochen
I give Rex, the hungriest dog in
the world, a bone
...interjections,
e.g. ja, oh, eh, nein, oh weh--these are nothing to worry
about
Oh
ja, Rex ist sehr schmutzig.
Oh yes, Rex is very dirty.
...series.
These can be series of clauses, or just of words [no commas
before und or oder in a series of words; the rule
given above applies for und or
oder in a series of clauses]
Rex
ißt Hühner, Mäuse, rohe und gekochte Eier,
rohe Kartoffeln und Haare.
Rex eats chickens, mice, raw and boiled
eggs, raw potatoes, and hair.
Lisa
füttert den Hund, versucht ihn zu baden, füttert
ihn wieder und geht dann ins Bett.
Lisa feeds the dog, tries to bathe
him, feeds him again, and then goes to bed.
...commas
inserted for clarity where they are grammatically not necessary
[rare]
Finding
the main clause(s)
This should be your first step in analyzing a complex sentence.
The main clause will have the verb in second position (or
in first position for questions or commands) whereas dependent
clauses will have it in final position.
Exceptions
1. Conditional sentences omitting "if" are dependent clauses
with the verb in first position.
Ist
Barney böse, so frißt er die lächelnden Kinder
If Barney is mad, he eats the smiling
children
2.
If speech or thoughts are reported without using the word daß,
the verb is in second position, even though the clause containing
the reported speech is subordinated to the clause containing
the verb of saying or thinking. E.g. in the sentences:
Er
sagt, er habe keine Zeit.
"Er sagt" is the main clause; "er habe keine Zeit" is subordinate.
Sie
denkt, sie könne schwimmen.
"Sie denkt" is the main clause; "sie könne schwimmen"
is subordinate.
3.
Rare: when als is used instead of als ob or
als wenn to mean as if, the verb is in second position,
even though this als is a subordinating conjunction.
Sie
sieht aus, als hätte sie viel getrunken
She looks as if she had drunk a lot
Example
Let
us return to our sample sentence, numbering the parts separated
by commas:
(1)
Er lag auf seinem panzerartig harten Rücken (1a) und
sah, (2) wenn er den Kopf ein wenig hob, (3) seinen gewölbten,
(3a) braunen, (3b) von bogenförmigen Versteifungen geteilten
Bauch, (4) auf dessen Höhe sich die Bettdecke, (5) zum
gänzlichen Niedergleiten bereit, (4a) kaum noch erhalten
konnte.
First,
look for the main clause(s). This should have the verb in
second position. This is only true of (1), where "Er" occupies
first position, and is followed by the verb "lag." The main
clause is therefore
(1)
Er lag auf seinem panzerartig harten Rücken
[=he lay on his armor-hard back]
This
is connected by "und" to another main clause, which is not
separated by a comma because the subject ("er") is not repeated.
This second main clause, beginning with "und sah" is interrupted
by the subordinate clause
(2)
wenn er den Kopf ein wenig hob [=when
he lifted his head a little]
Now
(3a) - (3c) form a series. They contain no verb, and constitute
a series of adjectives giving more information about "Bauch,"
in this case, that it is bulging, brown, and separated by
ark-shaped "stiffenings" [i.e. ridges][extended adjective!].
The main clause interrupted by (2) is thus:
(1a)
und sah [(2) wenn er den Kopf ein wenig hob] (3) seinen gewölbten,
(3a) braunen, (3b) von bogenförmigen Versteifungen geteilten
Bauch [=and
saw [when he lifted his head a little] his bulging, brown,
by-ark-shaped-ridges-separated belly]
Next,
(4) is a relative clause subordinate to the second main clause.
It describes "Bauch." It is itself interrupted by the apposition
(5), which contains no verb, and describes the "Decke" [=blanket]
(5)
zum gänzlichen Niedergleiten bereit [ready
to glide down completely]
The
complete relative clause is thus
(4)
auf dessen Höhe sich die Bettdecke [, (5) zum gänzlichen
Niedergleiten bereit,] (4a) kaum noch erhalten konnte.
[=at
whose [i.e. the stomach's] summit the blanket [ready to glide
down completely] could hardly maintain itself.
One
can now put the pieces together into an elegant translation:
He
lay on his armor-hard back, and saw, when he lifted his head
a little, his bulging, brown belly, which was separated by
ark-shaped ridges, at whose [i.e. the stomach's] summit the
blanket, ready to glide down completely, could hardly maintain
itself.
A
diagram of this sentence might look as follows:
(1)
Er lag auf seinem panzerartig harten Rücken
(1a)
und sah,
(2)
wenn er den Kopf ein wenig hob
(3)
seinen gewölbten, (3a) braunen, (3b) von bogenförmigen
Versteifungen geteilten Bauch,
(4)
auf dessen Höhe sich die Bettdecke,
(5)
zum gänzlichen Niedergleiten bereit,
(4a)
kaum noch erhalten konnte.
Summary
You will find this process increasingly easy with practice.
The moral of the story for now is: use the commas to separate
out the clauses, look for the main clause, and then work piece
by piece. Of course it would be ridiculous to do this with
every sentence, but if a sentence gets you lost, this is a
way to break it down and understand its structure.
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