Linguistische Berichte Heft 217

This paper aims at an analysis of a certain type of use of proper names that appears particularly widespread in German (as well as in French or Spanish, but not in English). While proper names are generally regarded as being inherently definite, in German one frequently finds proper names preceded by the indefinite article. This construction is most popular when human beings of great public interest are referred to. This type of sentences forms minimal pairs with others in which the definite article appears, or else simply the bare proper name (the latter difference being basically a matter of dialectal variation). Our analysis of indefinite proper names will assume that they involve generic quantification over ,,manifestations" of individuals.

Linear syntax as a descriptive theory of word order must provide schemata (i.e. ordered sets of slots) and restrictions concerning the schemata's slots, in order to qualify as a theory making predictions. Two accounts of the linear syntax of German clauses (,,Theorie der topologischen Felder") are presented, which fulfil this condition. The first one is a slight modification of Höhle (1986). The second one is an elaboration of the first one by focusing the restrictions, introducing an additional slot and incorporating the notion of trace into linear syntax.