To describe this construction: Conversational functions of the free infinitive construction with um zu in spoken German

This article presents the results of research on the free infinitive construction with um zu in spoken German, which were obtained by considering the structure of this construction, its prosodic realization, its functions within the conversation, all on the basis of the corpus consisting of parts of authentic conversations in which this construction appears. Due to its syntax independence, lexical specificity and semantics that do not represent the sum of individual meanings of its constituents, it is treated in this article as a construction. The research has shown that a free infinitive construction with um zu makes explicit verbal moves that can precede or follow it and that make changes to conversational determinants such as theme, role of the speaker, narrative actions, narrative modus, way of formulation or retain this determinant. The status of the word nochmal also proved to be extremely interesting within this construction which is mostly semantically emptied and grammaticalized functions as a word specific to this construction.