German
In German, a noun phrase can be put in the accusative to indicate that the subject of the sentence has the property described. For example:
| Neben | ihm | saß | der | dünnhaarige | Pianist, | den | Kopf | im | Nacken, | und | lauschte. |
| next to | him | sat | the | thin-haired | pianist | the-masc.acc.sg | head | in the | neck | and | listened |
| "The thin-haired pianist, his head hanging (lit. his head in his neck), sat next to him and listened." | |||||||||||
Read more about this topic: Accusative Absolute
Famous quotes containing the word german:
“I am particularly interested in the indications that the people seem to understand and approve the necessity of pursuing the course that will prevent a further effort on the part of the German peoples to continue the struggle for world domination, even though they are thoroughly beaten in this war.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“She had exactly the German way: whatever was in her mind to be delivered, whether a mere remark, or a sermon, or a cyclopedia, or the history of a war, she would get it into a single sentence or die. Whenever the literary German dives into a sentence, that is the last you are going to see of him till he emerges on the other side of the Atlantic with his verb in his mouth.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“By an application of the theory of relativity to the taste of readers, to-day in Germany I am called a German man of science, and in England I am represented as a Swiss Jew. If I come to be regarded as a bête noire the descriptions will be reversed, and I shall become a Swiss Jew for the Germans and a German man of science for the English!”
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955)