Polysynthese, Multifunktionalität und die denominalen Adjektive im Deutschen

German is usually taken to have undergone a massive increase of analytic constructions especially in inflection at the cost of earlier synthetic coding. However, we also record the expansion of compounding, which is generally considered to be typical of polysynthetic languages and is therefore in contrast with the general trend towards analyticity. This mixed picture, in which inflectional markers are eliminated but synthetic features expand, leads to the paradox that the development of compounding also implies the increase of analyticity. In fact, in compounds modifiers typically lose their inflectional properties becoming invariable. This is also the case of verb modifiers like adverbs, predicative adjectives and nouns. Since this loss can be understood as multifunctionality, which is a typical analytic property, the expansion of compounding turns out to imply the expansion of such multifunctionality, i.e. analyticity. Denominal adjectives like Bombe, Klasse, etc., quite common among young people, reflect this paradox.