Contrastive Grammar in Use

Quantitative Perspectives on the Verb Phrase in English and German

Series: 

Author:
Hanna Mahler
If there is one speculation about English and German that has pervaded scholarly work within contrastive linguistics as well as language teaching and translation handbooks for decades, it is probably the assumption of a more “verbal style” in English compared to German. Settling this question once and for all, the present book provides a comprehensive comparison of verbal style in English and German that pays due attention to language-internal variation by mode and register at the same time.
Copyright Year:
2026
E-Book (PDF)
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-74812-5
Publication:
16 Feb 2026
Hardback
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-74696-1
Publication:
19 Mar 2026
Cover Contrastive Grammar in Use

Prices from (excl. shipping):

€136.10€129.00 excl. VAT
Add to Cart
Hanna Mahler holds an M.A. in English linguistics and recently completed her doctorate. Apart from contrastive linguistics, her research interest is in computer-mediated communication, especially on Reddit. She currently works at the University of Freiburg.
Acknowledgements
List of Tables
List of Figures
Abbreviations
Notational Conventions

1 Introduction

2 Approaching Quantitative, Corpus-Based Contrastive Linguistics
 1 Tracing the Rise of Quantitative Methods in Contrastive Linguistics
 2 An Overview of Statistical Methods Currently Employed
 3 Advantages and Risks of Quantitative Methods
 4 Designing Quantitative Corpus-Based Contrastive Studies
 5 Summary: A Portrait of Quantitative Corpus-Based Contrastive Linguistics

3 English and German: A System-Based Comparison
 1 Verbal Style in English and German
 2 Non-finite Verb Phrases and Their Functions in English and German
 3 Hypotheses

4 Methodology
 1 Data Acquisition
 2 Operationalisation and Unit of Measurement
 3 Quality Control
 4 Data Annotation
 5 Data Visualisation
 6 Data Analysis with Statistical Models
 7 Data-Driven Exploration
 8 Problems for Verb Phrase Delimitation

5 Data
 1 Corpora for Quantitative Contrastive Studies
 2 The GECCo Corpus
 3 On the Importance of Language-Internal Variation in Contrastive Linguistics

6 English and German: A Usage-Based Comparison
 1 Use of Verb Phrases
 2 Use of Non-finite Verb Phrases
 3 Use of Subtypes of Non-finite Verb Phrases
 4 Summary of Results

7 Discussion
 1 Relation to Existing Assumptions on English-German Contrasts
 2 Language-Specific Conditions for Verbal Style
 3 A Digression into Translation
 4 On Grammatical Determinism: Verbs with Non-finite Complementation
 5 From Usage-Based Contrastive Linguistics to Token-Based Typology

8 Conclusion
 1 Summary of Results
 2 Implications for the Field of Contrastive Linguistics
 3 Implications for Translation and Language Teaching
 4 Limitations of This Study
 5 Suggestions for Further Research

Appendix 1: Parts-Of-Speech Tags
Appendix 2: Additional Figures and Tables
Appendix 3: Translation Equivalents
Appendix 4: POS Tags for Manual Analysis
References
Index
The book is intended for scholars in contrastive linguistics, particularly those working on English–German comparisons. It also serves as a methodological reference for researchers developing quantitative, corpus‑based approaches in linguistics. The detailed, usage‑based analysis of non‑finite structures will interest authors of language‑learning and translator‑training materials, while the link it draws between corpus‑based contrastive linguistics and token‑based typology makes it relevant for typologists as well.
  • Collapse
  • Expand

Manufacturer information:
Koninklijke Brill B.V. 
Plantijnstraat 2
2321 JC
Leiden / The Netherlands
productsafety@degruyterbrill.com