From “die Welt von gestern” by Stefan Zweig:
“Wenn ich nachts träume und aufwache, weiß ich, daß ich im Traum italienisch gesprochen.”
“Und rundherum noch die ratlose Schar der Halbverbundenen, der Gemischten, englische Frauen, die deutsche Offiziere geheiratet, …”
I thought a form of “haben” (or “sein”, depending on the verb) would be missing in these sentences, like “…daß ich im Traum italienisch gesprochen HABE”, “…die deutsche Offiziere geheiratet HABEN / HATTEN”
But obviously Zweig is right and I am wrong, so… how come? Can the participle be used without the auxiliary in (some?) subordinate clauses?
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Hi,
actually, I stumbled over these two sentences too. So I went to the original text to see them in context.
As a German without a degree in German literature I can tell you that there are missing a habe and a haben/ hatten for them to be “complete” sentences.
BUT: these short, seemingly unfinished sentences are part of the authors writing style. Stefan Zweig - he was Austrian (that’s why you will also find a few Austrian words in the text) - was (and still is) very famous for his books and his clear style of writing. He wrote this book about his experiences shortly before dying over 80 years ago, so the language changed a bit since then too.
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Thank you for your reply Fer.weh! At least I feel better that my instinct was not too wrong in this case…
Yes, I find Zweig’s style really clear (except for this doubt I just asked), do you have any recommendations about authors that write in a similar, clear style?