Reanalyzing German Correlative Es

Several Germanic languages use correlatives to mark subordination. German is considered to be a prime example of a language realizing correlative constructions to embed finite argument clauses. This paper discusses complex clausal constructions in German that can be identified by a so-called correlative nominal element es (‘it’) and a right-peripheral full clausal argument that is linked to es. On an intuitive level, es functions as an antecedent of the linked argument clause in these constructions. Although correlative es is a well-established phenomenon of German grammar, there is no theoretical account that captures the empirical facts comprehensively. In particular, the janus-faced nature of es between an expletive and a referential realization form often remains unnoticed. In the present paper, this homonymy of correlate es is empirically substantiated. On the basis of these empirical observations the paper develops a new constraint-based analysis. The paper is organized as follows: After describing the phenomenon in section 2 and summing up the results of previous studies dealing with correlative es in section 3, empirical data that has not yet been captured in existing proposals are given in section 4. Taking into account the new data basis, section 5 then develops and outlines the aforementioned new constraint-based analysis. To conclude, the results of the paper are presented in section 6.