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Taxis contextems in the German language: a functional-semantic analysis of constructions with deverbatives // Tomsk State Pedagogical University Bulletin. 2026. Issue 3 (245). P. 31-40

This study develops the theoretical and methodological foundations for analyzing taxis relations in German, drawing on the functional-semantic approach developed by A.V. Bondarko, who defines taxis as a category of temporal correlation of actions. The relevance of this work stems from the need to overcome the fragmentation of taxis studies and develop a comprehensive approach to analyzing the structural organization of taxis meanings realized through prepositional-deverbative constructions. The goal of the study is to identify the structural and semantic features of the organization of taxis contexts in German. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the development and operationalization of the concept of a taxis context as a structural and semantic unity including core (deverbatives) and peripheral (prepositions, actualizers, quantifiers) components. The empirical base consists of over 5,000 examples from corpus sources (LC, DWDS). A methodological framework integrating functional-semantic and contextual analysis has enabled the identification and systematic description of two types of contextualities: primary-tactic (chronological) relations and secondary-tactic (logical-semantic) relations. Primary-tactic contextualities specialize in actualizing chronological relations (simultaneity, precedence, succession) through the integration of temporal prepositions with deverbatives and aspectual-temporal quantifiers. Secondary-tactic contextualities encompass a wide range of logical-semantic relations (modal, instrumental, medial, conditional, causal, concessive, consequential, final), where various classes of prepositions, in combination with deverbatives, form specialized semantic structures. Iterative-tactic contextualities, which actualize procedural multiplicity, occupy a special place. The structural organization of contextemes is established, including the specification of quantifiers as temporal delimiters, deverbative multiplicatives and iteratives, and specialized verb groups. The analysis demonstrates the systemic nature of the organization of taxis relations in German and confirms the effectiveness of the proposed methodological framework. The research’s potential lies in conducting a typological analysis of taxis contextemes in other Germanic languages, applying corpus linguistics methods to identify the discursive features of various types of contextemes, and developing practical applications for German language teaching.

Keywords: deverbatives, taxis, taxis context, primary-taxis context, secondary-taxis context, core components, peripheral components