Foreign or native phrase elements? – Cognitive aspects of the verbal bracket in German

This paper will show why in the German language, such complicated structures as the verbal brace is so prevalent despite obviously presenting a cognitive challenge for foreign language learners. The verbal brace should therefore be studied both from the diachronic and from the contrastive perspectives to show whether it is exclusively a German structure or whether this development has appeared in other Germanic languages too. It is also interesting to consider what it is about the special performance of this structure which has contributed to its success