Cohesive substitution in English and German 213
In summary, the main argument in favour of a separate category of substitu-
tion up to this point is that its function/semantics is typically different from that
of either co-reference or lexical (sense) relations, and furthermore that its lexico-
grammatical realizations are fairly specific to its type. These main features seem
to additionally impact on the distinct nature of chains that are established on the
basis of substitution.
2.2 Systemic differences
Core candidates for nominal substitution in English are one(s), and same, for ver-
bal substitution do (+so), and for clausal substitution so, not (Halliday & Hasan
1976: 88ff; Halliday & Matthiessen 2004: 563ff; for a somewhat fuller list see Quirk
et al. 1985: 865f ). For German, we assume at least (k)ein(e/r/s) with singular count
(or negated mass) nouns,^4 keine (countable plural negated) or welche in countable
plurals and non-countable singulars (welchen/e/s), and finally the cross-categorial
es.^5 German seems to admit a restricted use of dasselbe in parallel to English same.
Possible candidates for verbal substitution are tun or machen. Clausal substitution
exists only marginally in German.
An overview of systemic differences between German and English is given in
Table 3 at the end of this section.
2.2.1 Nominal substitution
2.2.1.1 Core nominals: The perspective from English. In English, the form one(s)
is employed for nominal substitution of count nouns in singular and plural. In
German, only the etymologically related singular form of ein-, as an equivalent to
one, is possible under certain conditions. One option for realizing plural substitu-
tion for count nouns in German is to make use of cohesive ellipsis:
(10) People who need this science, I would make an effort to tell them we have real
sciences, hard sciences, we don’t need imaginary ones. [EO_FICTION]
Den Leuten, die diese Wissenschaft brauchen, also, ich würde mir extra
Mühe geben, ihnen zu erzählen, daß wir richtige Wissenschaften haben,
hieb- und stichfeste Wissenschaften, wir brauchen keine imaginären 0.
[GTRANS_FICTION]
- See Schreiber (1999: 153) and elsewhere for the term ‘Pro-Nomen’ as opposed to
‘Pro-Nomi nal phrase’. - Cf. Mein Bruder ist ein Held/mutig. Aber ich bin es nicht. Meine Schwester kann die schwierig-
sten Gleichungen lösen, aber ich kann es nicht. In this function, German es partially corresponds
to English so in verbal substitution.