Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Preposition: English Flexibility vs German Precision - Miriam Schiele

Year
2024
Organisation
Matariki Network of Universities
Tags
linguistics
syntax
prepositions
English language
German language
cross-linguistic comparison
sentence structure
pragmatics
language flexibility
grammar research
MNU
Tübingen
Summary

This research compares English and German preposition use, focusing on when prepositions can be dropped in short answers. Through speaker judgments of dialogue naturalness, it shows that flexibility is context-dependent rather than a simple English–German contrast, revealing subtle grammatical and structural influences.