Re: V2
| From: | Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> |
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| Date: | Saturday, November 13, 1999, 1:06 |
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Dale Morris wrote:
>
> jmpearson@FACSTAFF.WISC.EDU writes:
>
> > To give some examples, if English were V2, then each of the following
> > sentences would be grammatical (here square brackets are used to indicate
> > constituents):
Actually, there are a few vestiges of V2 in English, as in "Never have I
heard such nonsense" (compare *"Never I have heard ..."), but, of
course, this is only in a few cases.
> So in these languages can the subject and object only be determined by
> inflection and/or context? Or are certain of the above patterns used in
> specific situations? I guess the biggest concern would be how to distinguish
> the first two...
Well, frequently by case. Subject can precede object as well. Say
English had V2, you could also say:
"The book did John give Daniel yesterday" using auxiliaries to prevent
placing subject after verb.
"Daniel did John give the book to yesterday"
"To Daniel did John give the book yesterday"
Actually, that might make for an interesting con-dialect of English.
Hmm, maybe I can find some way to re-introduce V2 to my ever-changing
Future English ....
--
"Old linguists never die - they just come to voiceless stops." -
anonymous
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