Henry Imler July 3rd, 2008

I know this is not a German grammar blog, but it is my blog and I can post whatever I like and right now I like to post snippets from my final project.

1. In diesem Komplex von Einfltissen und Ausstrahlungen ist … auch das Evangelium Jesu von Nazareth verkündigt worden. (In this complex of influences and transferences the gospel of Jesus of Nazareth has been declared.)

Mood: Indicative, Voice: Active, Tense: Passive Present Perfect– ist … verkündigt worden → sein + past participle (infinitive: verkündigen = to declare) + worden = “has been announced”

2. …Autoren, die sich mit der Geschichte des altesten Christentums in Edessa befasst haben…(…Authors, who have dealt with the history of the oldest Christianity in Edessa,…)

Mood: Indicative, Voice: Active, Tense: Present Perfect – befasst haben → haben + past participle (infinitive: befassen = to deal/occupy + sich/mit) = have dealt

befassen = inseparable prefix verb (be+fassen [to hold]) which is also reflexive and takes a dative – accompanied with sich, the reflexive third person pronoun and mit which tells the read what object the subject has deal/occupied itself with.

This is a relative clause, set off by the commas and the use of die as Autoren’s relative pronoun instead of its base use as a definite article. The relative clause describes the authors in further detail.

3. Religionswissenschaft

Compound noun: Science of Religion, or Religious Studies

Religions + wissenschaft

Religions → of religion

wissenschaft → science

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