Re: V2

DOUGLAS KOLLER wrote:
> And are there not vestiges of this structure in modern English?
Yep!  But only vestiges.  One doesn't say "Yesterday, gave I John the
book" but rather "Yesterday, I gave John the book"

> Never have I seen such a beautiful painting. (a little poetic, I'll grant
> you, but in my idiolect at least, it's the only grammatical possibility if
> you front "never").
Mine too.  Of course, rarely do I front such words.  :-)

> So do I.
> Negativity seems to play a major role here (and still involves adverbs or
> adverbial constructions), but I seem to remember having come up with a
> couple of affirmative examples as well
You've got one up there, "So do I".  Also forms like "So quickly did he
run out the door that he tripped over the step".  "So" appears to be one
of the words that triggers that V2 structure.

> > What about verbs that resolutely stay in final position?  As in Teonaht?
>
> And Géarthnuns!
Verb-final, I've never seen it abbreviated, but I guess you could say
VF.

> (for want of a better term -- it's not an auxiliary verb; it
> has no real semantic meaning on its own)
That can still be an auxilliary verb.  "Will" is considered an
auxilliary verb, yet has no real semantic meaning of its own (well,
there is the free verb "will", but the auxilliary has only the meaning
"future")

> called a shléts (indicating tense and voice) which hangs V2 position
> in ordinary utterances.
Interesting.  If I'm not mistaken, doesn't German tend to place the
nonfinite part of the verb at the end as well?

> It now almost always follows the nominative of the sentence
So that Géarthuns could be called SAOV, where A means "auxilliary"?

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