Zu den Funktionen einiger Präpositionaladverbien (am Beispiel von darum, worum, dabei, wobei)

The treatment of German prepositional adverbs as described in German-language reference literature is not always exhaustive or unproblematic. Their functions are not limited to their syntactic and pro-form roles since they also realise rhetorical and pragmatic functions. These various uses in both spoken and written German are discussed in this paper, which is based on the study of corpora and, in some interesting and exceptional cases, on contrastive analysis. Focusing upon the four text operators described here, darum, worum, dabei and wobei, systemic grammaticalization and pragmaticalization processes are identified. Text analysis of prepositional adverbs and the study of their syntax should, on the one hand, contribute to recognizing their appropriate functions and, on the other hand, to developing and improving the ability of learners and speakers to use them.