Temporal Properties of the Arguments in the German Nominalization

This paper treats the temporal properties of the arguments which undergo the changes denoted by the base verbs in the process of German nominalization. The base verbs denoting the changes of the state of affairs are very often the prefix verbs. Syntactically they do not denote any specific time intervals and appear just as points of time, which is certainly against our intuition. Thus some virtual intervals are established in order to encompass the changes of state of affairs indicated by the base verbs These virtual intervals become real intervals through the nominalization processes, especially the nominalizing with the suffix -ung. The change from the virtual intervals to the real intervals could be easily verified by the possibility of syntactic modifications, for instances, modification of the -ung- nominals by the durative temporal adverbials, attributive (durative) temporal adjectives, and the combinations with the durative predicates There are many base verbs that allow the derivation of - ung-nominals but never allow the syntactic modification of - ung nominals by durative temporal adverbs or adjectives. This fact is due to the assumption that the properties of the arguments are not changed properly by the processes or actions of the base verbs. 1n this case the - ung- nominals denote only the results of the changes denoted by the base verbs. Thus the theory of the nominalization developed in this paper explains the phenomena of the Nomen actionis and Nomen acti in the traditional German grammar appropriately