Verbal particles in German can be classified into distinct categories based on the semantic contribution they make to the complex verb: spatial, directional, aspectual, or more idiosyncratic meanings that do not fit neatly into these groups. In syntactic analyses, however, most attention has focused on the relation between the particle and the base verb, while the possibility that particles may occupy different positions when expressing different meanings has remained largely unexplored. Consequently, syntactic accounts of German particle verbs generally posit that all particles, regardless of their meaning, occupy the same syntactic position within a uniform structural representation. Whereas spatial and directional meanings are typically linked to the particle’s prepositional use, aspectual and other non-spatial interpretations are often treated as arbitrary, idiomatic, and lexically listed.

Recent research adopting syntactic approaches to morphology has established a broad consensus that lexical aspect (i.e., Aktionsart) is syntactically encoded. Yet this view has not been systematically explored in the context of German particle verbs, leaving open the question of how aspectual meanings arise within their syntactic representation.

This project investigates the syntactic expression of aspect in German particle verbs, arguing that aspectual meanings emerge compositionally from syntactic structure rather than being lexically stored. Adopting a neo-constructionist approach to morphology, it proposes that the polysemy of verbal particles can be systematically explained through their different syntactic configurations rather than through lexical properties.

Building on this theoretical perspective, the analysis focuses on German verbal particles that have been identified in the literature as carrying aspectual meanings (e.g., auf, aus, and an), demonstrating how their aspectual interpretations arise from specific syntactic configurations. Crucially, the project aims to show how aspectual meanings can be distinguished from, yet related to, other meanings, depending on the syntactic position occupied by the root. Ultimately, it seeks to develop a unified account of the polysemy of German particle verbs and to contribute to a broader understanding of aspect marking in complex verbs.