ABSTRACT
Syntax deals, not with the forms of individual words, but with their function in connected speech and their relationships in the sentence. Form and function are closely connected and often influence each other, as the last paragraphs of Chapter 12 have shown. Having lost all but a few inflected verbal forms, German has replaced the lost forms with syntactical devices, by combining words (auxiliary verbs, infinitives, participles) to function in groups. This tendency to make up for deficiencies by inventing new syntactical devices is one which can be seen at all stages in German.
