Valenc <sub adjunct obj-wh adjunct Differences in the realisation forms, i.e. valency patterns of words, exist between different languages and often make a contrastive analysis difficult. The parameters for the analysis of different languages may vary as language specific characteristics need to be accounted for(Emons 1974). On the other hand, a contrastive analysis needs to be based on homogeneous criteria for the classification of the valency complements (Bianco 1980). It is therefore important to use the same categories or labels for the languages as transparent as possible. That valency theory never experienced a breakthrough in the analysis of English might have to do with the morphologic properties of the language. English has mostly lost the noun-inflections indicating the cases which are generally seen as parameter for the analysis of valency complements ( Polenz 2008) Table 5. Valency complements in German and English(based on Engel 2009 and Fisher 1997) German Englis Case complements <sub> <sub Nominative complement; main Subject complement function: subject <obj Accusative complement; main Object complement function: direct object Genitive complement <dat Dative complement; main functions: Indirect object indirect object or direct object Prepositional <prp <prp> Prepositional complement Prepositional complement Adverbial <sit <sit complements Situational complement Situational complement Directional complement Directional complement8 Valenc y <sub > adjunct <obj-wh> adjunct Differences in the realisation forms, i.e. valency patterns of words, exist between different languages and often make a contrastive analysis difficult. The parameters for the analysis of different languages may vary as language specific characteristics need to be accounted for (Emons 1974). On the other hand, a contrastive analysis needs to be based on homogeneous criteria for the classification of the valency complements (Bianco 1980). It is therefore important to use the same categories or labels for the classification of valency complements in order to make the comparison between languages as transparent as possible. That valency theory never experienced a breakthrough in the analysis of English might have to do with the morphological properties of the language. English has mostly lost the noun-inflections indicating the cases which are generally seen as parameter for the analysis of valency complements (Polenz 2008). Table 5. Valency complements in German and English (based on Engel 2009 and Fisher 1997) German English Case complements <sub> Nominative complement; main function: subject <sub> Subject complement <obj> Accusative complement; main function: direct object <obj> Object complement <gen> Genitive complement --- <dat> Dative complement; main functions: indirect object or direct object <ind> Indirect object Prepositional complements <prp> Prepositional complement <prp> Prepositional complement Adverbial complements <sit> Situational complement <sit> Situational complement <dir> Directional complement <dir> Directional complement <exp> <exp>