Forum Rocket German German Grammar Insertion of a Prepositional Phrase between the Definite Article and the Noun Phrase of a Direct Object

Insertion of a Prepositional Phrase between the Definite Article and the Noun Phrase of a Direct Object

PaulS108

PaulS108

In lesson 13.2, entitled Das Bewerbungsgespräch, the following sentence is presented:
"Ich bin auf jeden Fall der Meinung, dass ich die für Ihre Stelle erforderlichen Kenntnisse und Qualifikationen habe." 
I assume that the word "die" is the definite article of the complete direct object: die erforderlichen Kenntnisse und Qualifikationen. If so, then the prepositional phrase, für Ihre Stelle, has broken up the direct object into two separate parts: the definite article and the noun phrase of the full direct object. I don't recall having encountered this until now, and don't entirely understand its syntactic significance. I would have expected to see the following:
 "Ich bin auf jeden Fall der Meinung, dass ich für Ihre Stelle die erforderlichen Kenntnisse und Qualifikationen habe."  
I would appreciate it if someone could shed some light on this German word order. How would this word order change the meaning or emphasis in the sentence? 
 
Julia-Rocket-German-Tutor

Julia-Rocket-German-Tutor

Hallo PaulS108,

thank you for your question! 
You might have noticed that German word order can very flexible at times. 

Your example "Ich bin auf jeden Fall der Meinung, dass ich für Ihre Stelle die erforderlichen Kenntnisse und Qualifikationen habe."  would be equally correct.

And in case you were wondering, "Ich bin auf jeden Fall der Meinung, dass ich die erforderlichen Kenntnisse und Qualifikationen für Ihre Stelle habe." would also be correct.

Now back to the original phrase: "Ich bin auf jeden Fall der Meinung, dass ich die für Ihre Stelle erforderlichen Kenntnisse und Qualifikationen habe." This doesn't necessarily change the meaning of the sentence but it  shows that the speaker wants to emphasise that their skills and qualifications are definitely the right fit for what is being required for the job.  

I hope this helps.

Viele Grüße
Julia

 
PaulS108

PaulS108

Thank you, Julia, for your explanation. The word order in this particular example was unexpected, but indeed shows the degree of flexibility in Deutsche Wortstellung. The example presented in the lesson and as well as your explanation were very enlightening. I once heard someone say, "Language learning is developing the ability to 'manipulate' a language in order to express what you want to say". In the above example, the nuance of separating and moving the definite article in the direct object for the purpose of emphasis, albeit rather advanced for me at this stage, is a very colourful manipulation.  

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