Re: German participles


"Ray" <raymondaliasapollyon@xxxxxxxxxxxx> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:1151118774.444909.94110@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Joachim Pense wrote:
Am Fri, 23 Jun 2006 09:50:24 +0200 schrieb Oliver Neukum:

Ray wrote:

Hi,

I'd like to invite the native speakers of German or anyone familiar
with the language among you to examine the following sentence:

"Acht Gestalten, die Gesichter hinter Tuechern und Wollmuetzen
versteckt, schlendern langsam zum Haus Nummer 128. "

Someone told me that "die Gesichter hinter Tuechern und Wollmuetzen
versteckt" is a reduced relative clause. But I doubt it. Can it be an
"absolute participial construction" instead?

No, because the reference to "Gestalten" is clear. It is an
elliptical construction. You can get their from a relative
clause, an attributive genitive or a prepositional construction.


Couldn't it translated into Latin, using an ablativus absolutus? (I
won't try, i don't feel at home translating into Latin.) Would an
ablativus absolutus be impossible if there was an attributive relation
to the subject?

But apart from Latin, I don't think absolute constructions are very
common in German.

From a synchronic POV, you might probably call the construction
absolute. From a diachronic/historical POV though, your suggestion


I am interested in the synchronic analysis of the sentence. Could you
tell me whether "die Gesichter" here is in the nominative or accusative
case? It's in the plural, so I cannot tell which case. (I guess it is
nominative, though.)

No, it's in the accusative case -- here's a clearer example for you
(http://rhein-zeitung.de/magazin/reise/galerie/suedafrika1/main.html):

"*Den Sonnenhut tief ins Gesicht gezogen*, das schweißgetränkte Hemd weit
aufgeknöpft, lehnt Andrew Andersen im Schatten eines Felsvorsprungs."

Regards,
Ekkehard


.

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