„Gehe hinaus in die Welt und bringe mir das Stärkste, das du findest.“ – Eine Untersuchung der Verwendung von das anstelle von was als Relativpronomen bei nominalisierten Superlativadjektiven und bei neutralen Indefinitpronomina

Sammanfattning

This bachelor's thesis examined the use of the German relative pronouns "was" and "das" in contemporary German. The focus was to examine how in modern German the relative pronoun "das" is used instead of "was" in sentences in which "was" according to German grammar is the correct relative pronoun. The focus was on relative clauses for the two antecedents "neutral-gendered superlative and nominalized adjectives" and "indefinite pronouns". The study was based on examples from the text corpus DeReKo from the Leibniz Institute for German Language, IDS, in Mannheim. After discussing different grammars' views on the subject, the results of the study are presented. The results showed that "was" still is the most common relative pronoun in these grammatical categories, but that "das" is also commonly used. No correlation between used superlative adjectives and the decision between "was" or "das" as a relative pronoun could be found. Regarding indefinite pronouns, however, "etwas" seems to be preferred together with "das" and "alles" with "was". Widely discussed in the thesis is the grammar books' explanation that what decides the use of relative pronouns is how concrete, definite and specified the antecedent is, with more definity, concreteness, and specificity enabling the use of "das" as a relative pronoun. These explanations do not appear sufficient, according to this study. The conclusion is rather that the uses of these two relative pronouns are more and more commonly mixed together without any definite conclusion on the reason. It is possible that the more specific, definite and concrete the antecedent adjectives or indefinite pronouns are used, the more the writer and speaker feels that "das" is more fitting. This however does not appear to be the only explanation, and one can only speculate on why speakers and writers decide to use one form instead of another. The mixed-together usage of the two relative pronouns is believed to increase with time.