Working paper.
German micro-entry opening the Group D Germanic MERIT set (DE zuschreiben vs gutschreiben already named in the queue / English twin). Geometry from Lexical_Entry_Credit_Argument_Structure and NegQ association maps from Negative_Questions_Credit (Group D morphology split ascribe vs ledger). Constructed diagnostics diagnose Case clothes (ACC Charge + DAT Target), light-noun Verdienst, Voice filter, and the MERIT / FIN root split; they are not spontaneous-speech citations. English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, and Mandarin twins already live.
Constructed examples.
Frames below are packaging hypotheses aligned with the lexical entry, chat 23 / 25 Group D notes, and Index 2 Vol. 7. Cause-true and settlement are not entailed — same missing defaults as English creditMERIT, attributeATT, and blame. Do not fake elicitation. FIN strings (gutschreiben / einem Konto gutschreiben) appear only as contrast pointers — do not deepen FIN.
Sense-class · FIN/MERIT split (Group D named roots).
Index 2 lists German Attitude as
beschuldigen, verantwortlich machen, zuschreiben (Vol. 7). This page deepens the
merit / ascribe-positive reading as √ASCRIBE (+). Group D splits morphology cleanly:
zuschreiben / light-noun
Verdienst host MERIT;
gutschreiben /
einem Konto gutschreiben host FIN / ledger — pointer only. Flag any surface overlap; do not deepen FIN here. MERIT has no MeasureP and no Account. Shared bare
zuschreiben also hosts
attributeATT · DE — keep the split; ATT DE twin is live.
Scout / deferred.
Relative productivity of bare zuschreiben vs light-noun das / den Verdienst zuschreiben is scout-leaning. Companion anerkennen (praise / recognition) is scout where natural — not ranked against √ASCRIBE. Dutch / Norwegian ascribe vs ledger letters and HU Focus+nem stay predicted. No fake elicitation. sell·Navajo still deferred.
Hierarchy
Same inventory as English creditMERIT, Romance twins, Japanese 功績を認める, and Mandarin 归功于. Not five-place. Not four sisters of one V. Surface count can name the investors, the early completion, and the contractor — but the lexicon does not list four co-arguments of √ASCRIBE / √ZUSCHREIB-.
Intended labeling (shared with English)
√ASCRIBE (positive / meritorious) + VoiceJ(Judge) + Charge + Target · hierarchy Cognizer / Judge > Charge / Content > Target
Voice introduces Judge (proto-Agent of the attitude). The ascription relates Target to Charge under positive / meritorious HOLD. German spells the productive cloth as ACC Charge + dativ Target (jmdm. etw. zuschreiben — parallel to English to-frame Charge ACC / Target to). Light-noun on-geometry: jmdm. das Verdienst / den Verdienst zuschreiben. Optional high Affectee / outer CAUSEG (zuschreiben lassen) wrap Voice; they are not listed inner arguments.
No MeasureP on MERIT. There is no verbal Amount+Denomination object unless Charge itself has been recoded as a share of credit (English lexical entry §5.4 hybrid — flag, do not deepen). Degrees that sneak in (wie viel Verdienst, partitives on Charge) live on the Abney spine of a light noun or of Charge — Left Branch Condition for sell / pay / chargeFEE / creditFIN does not apply as a verbal diagnostic here.
What Group D changes is Case morphology and the named MERIT/FIN root split. What it does not change is the inventory. Weather still satisfies Target and fails Judge. Cause-true is still not entailed. Target and Charge still do not invert at Transfer cost. Treating creditMERIT as Agent > Theme > Goal, or collapsing it with creditFIN because German can talk “gutschreiben” for ledger, predicts a DOC, a HAVE entailment, a MeasureP LBC host, or a grammatical weather-as-Judge — none of those exist on MERIT.
German frames · Case clothes
Germanic packages merit-ascribe without a productive DOC. Productive cloth: Charge ACC with Target in dative (jmdm. etw. zuschreiben). Light-noun das Verdienst / den Verdienst parks Target in dative under the same verb. Companion anerkennen scout where natural (praise-adjacent; may take ACC Target + für-Charge — scout-leaning). FIN uses gutschreiben / einem Konto gutschreiben for MeasureP / Account — different root; pointer only below. Keep MERIT on zuschreiben / Verdienst.
- ✓ Die Investoren haben dem Auftragnehmer die vorzeitige Fertigstellung zugeschrieben. DAT Target · ACC Charge · bare zuschreiben
- ✓ Die Investoren haben dem Auftragnehmer das Verdienst zugeschrieben. light noun · das Verdienst · DAT Target
- ✓ Sie haben dem Auftragnehmer den Verdienst zugeschrieben. light-noun companion · den Verdienst · Index 2 zuschreiben
- ✓ Man erkennt dem Auftragnehmer den Erfolg an. companion anerkennen · scout-leaning
- ✓ Haben sie dem Auftragnehmer die vorzeitige Fertigstellung nicht zugeschrieben? polar NegQ · DAT Target · ACC Charge
- ✓ Haben sie ihm das Verdienst nicht zugeschrieben? polar NegQ · light noun · ihm = Target
- ✓ Sie haben ihm den Erfolg zugeschrieben. ihm = Target; Charge ACC
- ✓ Sie haben den Erfolg dem schlechten Wetter zugeschrieben. weather = Target OK
- ✓ Haben sie dem Ausschuss den Erfolg nicht zuschreiben lassen? lassen wrap · outer CAUSEG
- ✓ FIN pointer only: Der Rat hat jedem Konto 0,3 ETH gutgeschrieben. FIN · gutschreiben · do not deepen
- ✓ FIN pointer only: einem Konto gutschreiben ledger Account cloth · pointer only
- * Hat das schlechte Wetter dem Auftragnehmer den Erfolg nicht zugeschrieben? weather as Judge
- * Haben sie dem Auftragnehmer die vorzeitige Fertigstellung zugeschrieben den Erfolg? no productive DOC (bare double ACC)
- * Haben sie die vorzeitige Fertigstellung auf den Auftragnehmer zugeschrieben? no blame auf-cloth as Charge host for MERIT
NegQ baseline · association tracks ACC / Case object
✓ Haben sie dem Auftragnehmer die vorzeitige Fertigstellung nicht zugeschrieben? DAT Target · cheap = Charge ACC
✓ Haben sie ihm das Verdienst nicht zugeschrieben? light noun · ihm Target
✓ Wurde dem Auftragnehmer der Erfolg zugeschrieben? passive · Voice
✓ FIN contrast (pointer): Hat der Rat jedem Konto 0,3 ETH nicht gutgeschrieben?
* Hat das schlechte Wetter niemandem den Erfolg zugeschrieben? weather as Judge under Neg
* Haben sie dem Auftragnehmer die Fertigstellung den Erfolg zugeschrieben? no Neg-rescued DOC
# Haben sie dem Auftragnehmer die vorzeitige Fertigstellung nicht zugeschrieben? — meaning the contractor didn’t cause it. cause-true not a default
A bare Nein on the canonical NegQ most readily challenges the ascription event or the ACC object of the chosen cloth. Challenging the dative wants that content already under discussion. Negation does not grow a double-object and does not create a MeasureP on MERIT. HOLD is not cause-true — parallel to FIN’s missing payout default (HAS_ON_BOOKS ≠ spendable) and to blame’s missing cause-true default.
WH / NegQ diagnostics · no MeasureP LBC
Unlike sell / payGIVE / chargeFEE / bet / creditFIN, creditMERIT has no verbal MeasureP. There is therefore no Left-Branch Condition of the Amount-from-Denomination type on √ASCRIBE. Degrees that appear are DP-internal on Charge or on the light noun Verdienst.
- ✓ Wer hat dem Auftragnehmer die vorzeitige Fertigstellung nicht zugeschrieben? WH = Judge
- ✓ Was haben sie dem Auftragnehmer nicht zugeschrieben? WH = Charge · ACC
- ✓ Wem haben sie die vorzeitige Fertigstellung nicht zugeschrieben? WH = Target · DAT
- ✓ Wofür erkennt man dem Auftragnehmer den Erfolg nicht an? WH = Charge · anerkennen companion · scout-leaning
- ✓ Wie viel Verdienst haben sie ihm nicht zugeschrieben? degree on light noun · Abney-side, not verbal MeasureP
- * Wie viel haben sie dem Auftragnehmer nicht von Fertigstellung zugeschrieben? no verbal MeasureP LBC host on MERIT
- ✓ Sie haben den Erfolg dem schlechten Wetter zugeschrieben. weather = Target · fine
- * Haben sie dem Auftragnehmer den Erfolg dem schlechten Wetter nicht zuschreiben lassen? weather still not inner Judge under lassen
Superiority ranks Judge > ACC > DAT. The productive cloth keeps Charge as Case object and Target as dative — parallel to English to-frame, not a with-frame flip that would make Target ACC. Cheap NegQ association tracks the Case object. There is no ranking of Charge against a silent Purpose, Price, or Theme₂.
DAT Target ≠ FIN Account · ACC Charge ≠ MeasureP
DAT Target = ascribee — not FIN wallet / Account, not bet Platform, not sell Recipient HAVE. ACC Charge = content of the attitude — not ledger Amount, not sell Price, not pay Consideration, not swap Theme₂. Group D: gutschreiben resumes FIN quantity / Account; MERIT stays on zuschreiben / Verdienst.
Geometry · creditMERIT ≠ creditFIN ≠ beschuldigen ≠ attributeATT ≠ Transfer
In Die Investoren haben dem Auftragnehmer die vorzeitige Fertigstellung zugeschrieben, the investors hold that the contractor is responsible for the early completion under meritorious evaluation. That is ascription, not HAVE of goods and not ledger INCREMENT. The contractor is Target. The early completion is Charge. HOLD is an attitude; MERITORIOUS(Target, Charge) is content, not a presupposed fact.
- ≠ creditFIN / gutschreiben. Group D names the roots. FIN writes MeasureP TO a Domain / Account (Der Rat hat jedem Konto 0,3 ETH gutgeschrieben / einem Konto gutschreiben). MERIT has no MeasureP and no Account — keep on zuschreiben / light-noun Verdienst. Collapsing them is the error the lexical entry was written to block. Do not deepen FIN this tick — pointer only.
- ≠ English DOC / Transfer invert. There is no productive bare DOC with two ACC objects as a licensed Case pair of the English *credited the contractor the early completion type. Negation does not rescue it. Transfer Themes invert under Germanic swap NegQ; MERIT Target and Charge do not.
- ≠ attributeATT polarity merge. Shared family (ascribe content to Target) and shared Voice filter; creditMERIT writes positive / meritorious polarity. Bare German zuschreiben DAT Target ACC Charge is also the Group D attributeATT cloth — keep the split: MERIT light-noun Verdienst advertises the praise-adjacent packaging. DE attributeATT twin is live at attribute-att-de.html.
- ≠ blame / √ASCRIBE_FAULT (beschuldigen / verantwortlich machen). Opposite polarity. Blame ascribes fault; credit ascribes merit. Shared Voice filter; polarity of HOLD differs. Index 2 lists all three in one German Attitude cell — deepen MERIT on zuschreiben / Verdienst; blame clothes stay on beschuldigen.
- ≠ sell / ApplHAVE / chargeFEE. No ApplHAVE, no für-Price MeasureP, no ApplFROM Payer. Surface für on MERIT companions, when scout-leaning under anerkennen, is content of the attitude — not Price and not FEE Consideration.
- Missing defaults. Cause-true and settlement are not entailed. Haben sie dem Auftragnehmer die vorzeitige Fertigstellung nicht zugeschrieben? is compatible with the contractor not in fact causing the early completion. Ironic polarity (ihm den Diebstahl zuschreiben) is lexical HOLD content, not a fourth argument.
English twin spells to-frame Charge ACC / Target to and with-frame Target ACC / Charge with. Japanese twin spells Charge o + Target ni. Romance twins: Charge ACC / Target a/à; light-noun mérito/mérite/merito. German twin: productive DAT Target + ACC Charge (jmdm. etw. zuschreiben); light-noun Verdienst + DAT Target; anerkennen companion scout-leaning. Weather OK as Target, *not* as Judge.
Shells, ApplP, and Case
Base tree (ascribe-merit · German clothes)
productive cloth (jmdm. etw. zuschreiben):
VoiceP [ JudgeNOM
vP / √ASCRIBE
ACC Charge
DAT Target ]
Light-noun:
VoiceP [ JudgeNOM
vP / √ZUSCHREIB-
ACC das/den VerdienstN (Charge-type / MERIT)
DAT Target ]
Companion anerkennen · scout-leaning:
VoiceP [ JudgeNOM
vP / √ANERKENN-
DAT / ACC Target (cloth variable)
PP_für / ACC Charge ]
German MERIT never assigns four structural Cases. Charge is ACC; Target wears DAT (or lives inside the light-noun cloth). No low ApplHAVE. No low ApplSWAP. No ApplTASK. No MeasureP (unless share-of-credit hybrid — flag). High Appl / Affectee is extra when present and is not a listed argument of √ASCRIBE.
Composition is V(DP) on the ACC object. Dative Target is structural/oblique Case on the Abney spine of Target (same cut as English to / Romance a/à): V(DP), not V(zu(DP)). Early completion does not travel a path; the contractor is not an instrument of mit.
Pronoun height: ihm/ihr resumes Target under light-noun and under many productive strings; es/ihn/sie can resume Charge or the light noun. Inanimate Target is fine. Inanimate subject as Judge is not generated — that is the Voice filter, not a Case accident.
Outer CAUSEG (zuschreiben lassen) wraps Voice. The causee, not the weather, is the Judge. Type A climbing unions Voice domains; Charge stays content and never climbs as a dative MeasureP.
Omission does not demote Charge to a pure adjunct. Selected Case layers are optional in the numeration; they are still arguments when present. The diagnostic is participanthood under Case, binding, and WH — not omitability. Charge clauses are islands in a way rationale adjuncts are not; there is no Neg-raising out of Charge.
Type A · lassen wrap
✓ Haben sie dem Ausschuss die vorzeitige Fertigstellung nicht zuschreiben lassen? outer Neg denies causing
* Haben sie dem Auftragnehmer den Erfolg das schlechte Wetter nicht zuschreiben lassen? weather still not inner Judge
Underivables (German MERIT)
- * Hat das schlechte Wetter dem Auftragnehmer den Erfolg nicht zugeschrieben? weather / inanimate as Judge
- * Haben sie dem Auftragnehmer den Erfolg das schlechte Wetter nicht zuschreiben lassen? lassen wrap does not wash Voice filter
- * Haben sie dem Auftragnehmer die Fertigstellung den Erfolg zugeschrieben? no productive DOC
- * Wie viel haben sie dem Auftragnehmer nicht von Fertigstellung zugeschrieben? no verbal MeasureP LBC host on MERIT
- * Haben sie dem Auftragnehmer 0,3 ETH als Verdienst zugeschrieben? FIN MeasureP ≠ MERIT Charge (unless share hybrid — flag)
- * Haben sie die vorzeitige Fertigstellung auf den Auftragnehmer zugeschrieben? no blame auf-cloth as Charge host for MERIT
- * Haben sie den Auftragnehmer gegen die vorzeitige Fertigstellung getauscht? SWAP cloth ≠ ascribe-merit
- ✓ weather as Target: Sie haben den Erfolg dem schlechten Wetter zugeschrieben. inanimate Target fine
Group D packaging · German opens Germanic MERIT
Group D (German, Dutch, Norwegian) is the Germanic Case-cloth / named-root contrast set already predicted for NegQ on blame / sell / bet / chargeFEE / credit. Same hierarchy as English creditMERIT; German hosts Charge as ACC and Target as DAT, with light-noun Verdienst. Pronouns resume Target; passive / lassen demotion targets Voice. This tick is German only and opens the Group D Germanic MERIT set named in the English twin and the queue (zuschreiben vs gutschreiben). English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, and Mandarin twins are live. Dutch / Norwegian ascribe vs ledger letters and Group C (HU Focus, PL GEN-neg) stay predicted or scout — not elicited here. DE attributeATT on shared zuschreiben is live — keep ATT/MERIT split.
Open items
- Bare zuschreiben vs light-noun productivity. Relative frequency of bare jmdm. etw. zuschreiben vs das / den Verdienst zuschreiben is scout-leaning — flagged, not ranked.
- anerkennen companion. Praise-adjacent packaging; Case clothes (DAT vs ACC Target; für-Charge) are scout-leaning. Do not force English with-frame onto German without elicitation.
- Share-of-credit MeasureP hybrid. Lexical entry §5.4: Charge recoded as quantified share. Diagnostics: replaceable by zuschreiben/anerkennen, not by gutschreiben; weather can wear the Target slot; the board can be wrong. Flagged, not deepened as verbal MeasureP on plain MERIT.
- Ironic polarity. ihm den Diebstahl zuschreiben — HOLD polarity inside the attitude, not a fourth argument.
- Bare zuschreiben without light noun. Index 2 lists zuschreiben in the Attitude cell with blame forms. Bare zuschreiben DAT+ACC overlaps attributeATT. Keep split; ATT DE twin is live.
- FIN German micro-entry. Ledger gutschreiben / einem Konto gutschreiben remains a later tick. Keep the split; do not merge pages.
Corpus filenames
Primary extract for this micro-entry is Lexical_Entry_Credit_Argument_Structure (√ASCRIBE vs √CREDIT_LEDGER; Group D morphology split). NegQ association maps from Negative_Questions_Credit (Groups A–D; DE zuschreiben vs gutschreiben). Chat packaging: Tritransitive chats 23 (NegQ on credit · two-root · Groups A–D), 25 (credit attitude vs transfer), and 35 (credit argument-structure acceptability). Index 2 Vol. 7 German Attitude cell. Constructed DE frames diagnose packaging; they are not new elicitation.
- Lexical_Entry_Credit_Argument_Structure.docx primary · √ASCRIBE · to/with clothes · Voice filter · MERIT ≠ FIN · Group D split
- Negative_Questions_Credit.docx NegQ association · ACC tracks cheap · Groups A–D · DE zuschreiben vs gutschreiben
- Subject_Constraints_Nonvolitional_Attitude_Verbs.docx Judge vs Target · weather battery
- 23-negative-questions-on-credit-two-root-analysis.md chat 23 · Groups A–D · Germanic named roots
- 25-credit-attitude-vs-transfer-verb.md chat 25 · ascribe vs ledger
- 35-credit-argument-structure-acceptability.md chat 35
- INDEX2_Verbs.txt German Attitude · beschuldigen, verantwortlich machen, zuschreiben — Vol. 7
Series placement: German sense×language twin of English creditMERIT, Spanish acreditar, French attribuer, Italian attribuire, Japanese 功績を認める, and Mandarin 归功于. Opens Group D Germanic MERIT. Feeds Attitude / Evaluation Index 2 beside beschuldigen. Keeps FIN at ledger gutschreiben (pointer only). Links DE attributeATT twin (live). Speculation flagged.
Index 2 citations for this class
Attitude / Evaluation citations from Index 2
| Code | Language | Index 2 citation | As printed |
| EN | English | blame EN micro-entry, creditMERIT EN micro-entry, attributeATT EN micro-entry | Vols. 1, 3 |
| ES | Spanish | culpar ES micro-entry, creditMERIT · acreditar ES micro-entry, attributeATT · atribuir ES micro-entry | Vols. 3, 5 |
| FR | French | blâmer FR micro-entry, creditMERIT · attribuer FR micro-entry, attributeATT · attribuer FR micro-entry | Vols. 3, 5 |
| IT | Italian | incolpare IT micro-entry, creditMERIT · attribuire IT micro-entry, attributeATT · attribuire IT micro-entry | Vols. 3, 5 |
| HU | Hungarian | hibáztat, okol, tulajdonít, elismer, jóváír · attributeATT · tulajdonít HU micro-entry · creditMERIT · elismer HU micro-entry | Vols. 3, 6 |
| BG | Bulgarian | обвинявам / виня, приписвам / отдавам | Vols. 3, 6 |
| PL | Polish | obwiniać / winić, przypisywać | Vols. 3, 6 |
| DE | German | beschuldigen, verantwortlich machen, zuschreiben · creditMERIT · zuschreiben DE micro-entry · attributeATT · zuschreiben DE micro-entry | Vol. 7 |
| NL | Dutch | de schuld geven, toeschrijven | Vol. 7 |
| NO | Norwegian | legge skylden på | Vol. 7 |
Languages Index 2 does not list for this class are left off the table. Japanese / Mandarin MERIT sit Beyond Index 2 Attitude cells at their twin pages.