Paul Diderichsen
Encyclopedia
Paul Diderichsen was a Danish linguist who is known for his model of sentence structure in Danish
which has been widely applied to describe the syntax
of languages with fixed word order, such as the mainland Scandinavian languages. Diderichsen was professor of Danish at the University of Copenhagen
from 1943 until his death. His sentence model makes use of so-called 'slots' into which different sentence constituents can be inserted.
, a language in which the verb is nearly always the second constituent in a wellformed clause, the preverbal slot can be used to insert many different kinds of syntactic elements.
The basic model distinguishes a grounding field, a nexus field and a content field. The grounding field contains elements that are moved out of one of the other slots in order to serve as the theme
of the sentence. The nexus field contains slots for the finite verb and its arguments and adverbial modifiers. The content field contains the infinite verb its object and adverbial modifiers.
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
which has been widely applied to describe the syntax
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
of languages with fixed word order, such as the mainland Scandinavian languages. Diderichsen was professor of Danish at the University of Copenhagen
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...
from 1943 until his death. His sentence model makes use of so-called 'slots' into which different sentence constituents can be inserted.
The Diderichsen Sentence Model
In order to describe the different operations in Danish syntax, Diderichsen developed a model, making use of ordered slots into which different sentence constituents can be inserted. Danish is a socalled V2 languageV2 word order
In syntax, verb-second word order is the rule in some languages that the second constituent of declarative main clauses is always a verb, while this is not necessarily the case in other types of clauses.- V2 effect :...
, a language in which the verb is nearly always the second constituent in a wellformed clause, the preverbal slot can be used to insert many different kinds of syntactic elements.
The basic model distinguishes a grounding field, a nexus field and a content field. The grounding field contains elements that are moved out of one of the other slots in order to serve as the theme
Theme (literature)
A theme is a broad, message, or moral of a story. The message may be about life, society, or human nature. Themes often explore timeless and universal ideas and are almost always implied rather than stated explicitly. Along with plot, character,...
of the sentence. The nexus field contains slots for the finite verb and its arguments and adverbial modifiers. The content field contains the infinite verb its object and adverbial modifiers.