Research project at the Inst. of Language, Literature and Culture, Faculty of Humanities, University of Aarhus,
financed by Forskningsrådet for Kultur og Kommunikation (Danish Research Council for Culture and Communication)

Eva Engels	Post doc 2009-2014	Building 1481 / Room 329, English, Dept. of Aesthetics & Communication University of Aarhus	(+45) 8716 2643	engee@hum.au.dk
Steffen Krogh	Associate professor	Building 1481 / Room 456, German, Dept. of Aesthetics & Communication University of Aarhus	(+45) 8716 3516	gersk@cc.au.dk
Henning Nølke	Professor	Building 1481 / Room 664, French, Dept. of Aesthetics & Communication University of Aarhus	(+45) 8716 2356	romhn@cc.au.dk
Katrine Planque Tafteberg	Ph.D. Student 2008-2012	Building 1481 / Room 663, French, Dept. of Aesthetics & Communication University of Aarhus	(+45) 8716 2619	romkbtj@hum.au.dk
Sten Vikner	Professor	Building 1481 / Room 330, English, Dept. of Aesthetics & Communication University of Aarhus	(+45) 8716 2639	sten.vikner@cc.au.dk
Johanna Wood	Associate professor	Building 1481 / Room 328, English, Dept. of Aesthetics & Communication University of Aarhus	(+45) 8716 3896	engjw@cc.au.dk

Eva Engels

Steffen Krogh

Henning Nølke

Katrine Planque Tafteberg

Sten Vikner

Johanna Wood

One of the fundamental grammatical distinctions is the one between verbs and nouns. The project Similarities and Differences between Clauses and Nominals focusses on examining the syntactic dimension of this basic distinction. The point is that verbs and nouns have rather different possibilities of syntactic combination. The verb is the central element of the syntactic units that we call clauses, whereas the noun is the central element of the syntactic units that we call nominals, as illustrated in the following examples:

It is striking that in spite of the syntactic differences between the structures, the two examples express more or less the same content. The interesting task is now to map out which similarities or parallels there are between clauses and nominals, and in which respects clauses and nominals are completely different. The project will investigate such similarities and differences in detail, and it will furthermore examine which circumstances condition these similarities and differences, including which contexts favour one or the other.

The project is divided into three areas (argument structure, modifiers, determiners) and all three areas will be examined from a comparative point of view, with the emphasis on Danish, English, French, German and Yiddish.