<p>This survey focuses on the omissible constituents of a sentence, which not only relate to the verb but also describe the subject or object. In a sentence analysis, they cannot be determined by the syntactic structure alone, but need an additional semantic approach. These units are commonly used, but so far have been insufficiently described in grammars and research literature, although the understanding of the function of these units is necessary in order to be able to make a complete sentence analysis. Further, there is no consensus regarding terminology and classification. The term depictive secondary predication is commonly used in English, and the terms <i>prädikatives Attribut, freies Prädikativ </i>and <i>Koprädikativ</i> are the most widely used terms in German. In this study, the term <i>freies Prädikativ</i> (FP) is used. The classification of these constituents in the literature varies between FP, adverbials and in some cases attributes.</p><p>Based on the information available in German grammars and mainly German research literature, a model was developed, which makes it possible to distinguish FP from adverbials and attributes. A corpus containing German novels and newspapers was analysed in the light of this model. The controlled sentences of grammar books and research literature almost always use adjectives as examples of FP. This study shows that FP can be found in all types of phrases like adjective phrases, participle constructions, als- phrases and prepositional phrases. In addition, it is shown that FP occur with all types of verbs.</p>

This survey focuses on the omissible constituents of a sentence, which not only relate to the verb but also describe the subject or object. In a sentence analysis, they cannot be determined by the syntactic structure alone, but need an additional semantic approach. These units are commonly used, but so far have been insufficiently described in grammars and research literature, although the understanding of the function of these units is necessary in order to be able to make a complete sentence analysis. Further, there is no consensus regarding terminology and classification. The term depictive secondary predication is commonly used in English, and the terms prädikatives Attribut, freies Prädikativ and Koprädikativ are the most widely used terms in German. In this study, the term freies Prädikativ (FP) is used. The classification of these constituents in the literature varies between FP, adverbials and in some cases attributes. Based on the information available in German grammars and mainly German research literature, a model was developed, which makes it possible to distinguish FP from adverbials and attributes. A corpus containing German novels and newspapers was analysed in the light of this model. The controlled sentences of grammar books and research literature almost always use adjectives as examples of FP. This study shows that FP can be found in all types of phrases like adjective phrases, participle constructions, als- phrases and prepositional phrases. In addition, it is shown that FP occur with all types of verbs.