wordstellungsordnungen

Wordstellungsordnungen refer to the ordering of words in a sentence to convey meaning, particularly in Germanic languages such as German. In syntactic terms, word order is determined by the grammatical function of each word, which can influence how the sentence is processed by the listener or reader.

One of the primary characteristics of word order in German is its relatively free word order, which means that the position of words in a sentence can change without affecting the overall grammatical structure. This flexibility is due in part to the use of cases, such as nominative and accusative, which can influence the word order.

There are two main strategies used in German for determining word order: the main clause (Hauptklause) and the dependent clause (Nebensatz). In main clauses, the subject usually appears in first position, followed by the verb, while in dependent clauses, the verb is typically placed in initial position.

The order of adjectives, or adjectival phrases, follows a particular pattern as well. On the noun phrase, the correct order is demonstrated as: article, number, case, quality, dimension, quantity, and adjective. This ordering is interleaved and thus does not have a clear indigenous or dominant order.

The teaching and learning of word order in German, as a second language, is therefore particularly important. German word order often refers to the Wordstellung or simply the 'order of the words.'