Ricerc@Sapienza

In German, two grammatical tenses can be used to encode future events. The Präsens is the unmarked tense and the Futur I the marked tense. Futur I is mainly used to emphasize temporal distance/discontinuity and to highlight the proposition on a semantic and pragmatic level; in specific contexts it can also function as a desemanticized alternative to the Präsens.

Secondary, non-prototypical prepositions have the form of an adverb, adjective, verb, noun or prepositional phrase; in some cases the etymology is only partially transparent. Most prepositions govern the genitive but can also be constructed with the dative. The difference between the two cases is considered essentially stylistic, the dative being associated with oral and informal language. For some prepositions, however, both cases are equally accepted in standard language. Moreover, a group of prepositions should govern only dative, but in everyday language also genitive can be found.

Primary, prototypical prepositions in German govern accusative and dative. The difference between the two cases is semantically motivated, not only for the prepositions governing two cases (an, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor, zwischen), but also for prepositions allowing one option: accusative for bis, durch, für, gegen, ohne, um; dative for ab, aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu. Accusative appears to be associated with goal-orientedness and completeness, the dative represents an elsewhere condition.

Several semantic factors determine the grammatical gender of German nouns, mainly the natural gender and the association to semantic fields such as for example flowers (feminine), alcoholic beverages (masculine) or metals (neuter). Morphological factors such as derivative suffixes (-heit feminine, er masculin, -chen neutre) and phonological factors such as word endings (-e feminine, -en masculin) bear also relevance and can variously interact with semantic factors in determinating the gender of a specific noun.

After a brief survey over the main scientific studies on German gram-mars for foreign learners, the main characteristics of current didactic grammars are outlined as far as structure, intended users and levels are concerned. Finally, some desiderata for didactically appropriate grammatical rules are suggested.