«Müssen» als Ausdruck der Unvermeidbarkeit

Abstract

In the present text, sentences with müssen are discussed comparatively, describing unavoidable events in which individual or collective action is non-intentional and cannot be traced back to norms. Using corpus examples, it is shown how Portuguese and other languages describe such events and why in German müssen is chosen although other alternatives would also be available. In such sentences with müssen, reflex actions such as crying, laughing and sneezing are relevant, as are events such as thinking and dying. Müssen expresses causality in connection with the verbs mentioned, namely the cause-effect relationship between circumstances on which it is difficult to act and unavoidable subsequent actions/events. However, sentences with müssen and verbs like cry, sneeze, laugh, think and die are usually not formulated in Portuguese with the verbs dever and ter de. These common translations of müssen usually seem inappropriate here, both in Portuguese and in parallel examples in other languages. Consequently, various translation alternatives are compiled and analysed. From a contrastive perspective, the uniqueness of German is emphasized, which is challenging for DaF learners and teachers and could lead German speakers to choose inappropriate translation solutions in a foreign language like Portuguese.