I. YAKOVLEV CHUVASH STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY BULLETIN

word formation in the German language, common compound words, interfix, interfix choice, connecting element

The article proposes a systematization of the rules for using interfixes in the German word-composition, one of the most difficult topics in teaching German as a first and second foreign language. In the first part of the work, the origin of interfixes, the linking elements connecting the stems with an attributive relation is described in detail, the almost complete desemantization of interfixes is emphasized and the main functions of interfixes are analyzed. Each of the connective elements distinguished in the German word-composition is considered in the second part of the study. On the one hand, a distinction is made between interfixes and homonyms, for example, case inflections and plural suffixes. On the other hand, paradigmatic and non-paradigmatic ways of using interfixes are analyzed, which is especially characteristic of such linking elements as -s-, -er-, -en-. The paper systematizes additional functions of interfixes providing morphologically and phonologically correct division of compound words into syll ables, the disyllabic structure of compound word components necessary in the German language, the preservation of the traditional model-stressed syllable – unstressed syllable‖, marking the part of speech belonging of the particular compound word components and preventing their reduction. The paper also provides a transformational method as a marker to confirm the need for using interfixes and deals with cases of restricting the use of interfixes or their inconsistent use.

Алексеева Марина Геннадьевна – кандидат филологических наук, доцент кафедры романо-германской филологии Чувашского государственного педагогического университета им. И. Я. Яковлева, г. Чебоксары, Россия; e-mail: margennal@yandex.ru