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:
“The German mind, may it live! Almost invisible as a mind, it finally manifests itself assertively as a conviction.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“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)
“Sometimes, because of its immediacy, television produces a kind of electronic parable. Berlin, for instance, on the day the Wall was opened. Rostropovich was playing his cello by the Wall that no longer cast a shadow, and a million East Berliners were thronging to the West to shop with an allowance given them by West German banks! At that moment the whole world saw how materialism had lost its awesome historic power and become a shopping list.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)