Grammatische Regeln und konversationelle Strategien

The aim of this study is to establish whether conversational competence competes with grammatical competence (as suggested by the 'grammar for conversation' approach) or whether it is limited to the kinds of scope left open for it by grammar. Three detailed analyses of phenomena displayed by present-day German taken from corpora of everyday conversation demonstrate that the latter is in fact the case. These phenomena are phrase order in sentences, accent collisions and speech tempo. Another point that emerges from the study is that the scope provided by grammar rules and hence the potential impact of conversation strategies vary according to the type of phenomenon in question.