The following paper deals with one of the greatest challenges for the typology of German as a strict V2-language. It is claimed that in German there can be only one constituent in front of the finite verb, the so-called prefield. Extensive collection of data mainly from German newspapers has shown that there are sentences with multiple fronted constituents that are judged perfectly grammatical by German speakers. I will show that these sentences (that I will refer to as V3-sentences) are underlying certain restrictions that are not only valid for this class of ‘exceptional’ sentences, but hold for all German sentences as they result from general principles of precedence and information structure.

One of the main tasks of syntax at school is the parts-of-speech analysis (Satzgliedanalyse) of a given simple sentence. Satzglieder form an intermediate stage between the word and the sentence level. A well-established, yet somewhat fuzzy term in this context is Prädikat (predicate). This paper shows that this term is superfluous. It provides essential arguments for the elimination of the term Prädikat within school grammar and suggests a reorganization of the Satzgliedanalyse under a verb-centred and valency-based perspective, using the model of the topological frames.

The objective of this paper is to highlight problems connected with assessment of collocational competence in teaching German as a foreign language as well as their possible solutions. We begin with a description of the notion of collocation from the teaching perspective and list its most important features. Then we discuss the ways in which collocation competence has been assessed. Selected empirical studies are presented with the focus on the employed methodology. Then a discussion of their methodological value follows. In the next part of the paper we turn to an account of possible analytical tools for studying all three components of collocational competence and propose two alternative methods which allow to assess it during formal courses of a foreign language. Finally, we present our conclusions concerning the possibility of collocational competence assessment.

Im Hinblick auf Textsorten ist der folgende Text – eine Besprechung der zweiten Auflage von Sebastian Löbners Einführung in die Semantik – ein Hybrid aus Rezension und Erfahrungsbericht. Ich gestalte seit Jahren meine germanistischen Einführungen in die Semantik nach seinem Buch, nun auch nach der zweiten Auflage. Dies ist einerseits ein Zeichen, dass ich Löbners Buch als für diese Zwecke sehr gut geeignet halte. Es erlaubt mir aber auch, auf Punkte einzugehen, die bei einer kursorischen Lektüre übersehen werden konnten.