On Result Nominalization in German

Abstract

It is well known that certain deverbal nouns like invention, forgery and disappointment allow a result interpretation while others like explosion and search do not. Result interpretation can mean two things: reference to a result object (forgery) or reference to a result state (disappointment). The present paper, whose focus is on deverbal nouns in German, investigates the semantical conditions the base verb must fulfill in order to allow a result object or a result state nominalization. In particular, we critically examine the criteria proposed by Ehrich and Rapp (2000).