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Constituents of the sentence |
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A sentence is composed of words. The construction of a sentence shows that there is an intermediate level between the words and the sentence. This intermediate level can be found by changing the word order, and by substituting words for other words:
Changing word order:
| Der Chef |
fährt |
heute |
nach Basel. |
| Heute |
fährt |
der Chef |
nach Basel. |
| Nach Basel |
fährt |
der Chef |
heute. |
Substituting words:
| Der Chef |
fährt |
heute |
nach Basel. |
| Der Chef |
fährt |
schnell |
nach Basel. |
| Der Angestellte |
fährt |
heute |
nach Basel. |
| Der Chef |
fährt |
heute |
dorthin. |
| Der Chef |
reist |
heute |
nach Basel. |
An element that can change its position and be substituted in this way, is called a "constituent of the sentence". The examples show that a constituent can consist of one or more words, and that a constituent can be represented by words of different word classes.
The constituents are described under the following topics:
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